BEING A MAN AND BECOMING A NURSE - 3 MENS STORIES

The entry of men into nursing and their disproportionate dominance of the senior positions within the occupation raises some interesting que stions about the influence of hegemonic patriarchal attitudes and orie ntations within this setting. Morgan (Discovering Men, Routledge, Lond on, 1992) explains that masculinity is not the possession or non-posse ssion of certain traits. It has to do with the maintenance of certain kinds of relationships between men and men, and women and men. Masculi nities need to be understood as sets of attitudes which in varying deg rees contribute to the maintenance and reproduction of patriarchal sys tems. Using this understanding of masculinity the paper examines how f irst year male nurses approach their entry into nursing. This examinat ion demonstrates the process by which dominance by men is achieved and explains why women nurses need to be aware of the strategies used.