Customer Reviews

Gender Differences at Work: Women and Men in Non-traditional Occupations

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Dr. Williams studies women in the Marine Corps and men in nursing to discuss what it is like to be a gender minority in an occupation. Her most important point is that the experience differs based upon biological sex. If women in a male-dominated field have it rough that does not mean men in a female dominated field will have it the same way.

What came across most directly to me is how much gender still matters. If this book, Dr. Williams writes that men CHOOSE to avoid nursing whereas male military leaders actively PREVENT women from entering the field. Moreover, gender is complex. Female Marines see their femininity as a strength, but male Marines see that same quality as substandard. Male nurses get called doctor because patients simply can't fathom the idea of a male nurse. In fact, some patients say the men practice "male nursing" because the idea still seems so novel and oxymoronic to them. Unfortunately, the continued reality of violence against women is documented: male nurses noted that male doctors throw things at female nurses. I was scandalized by that!

At first, I was surprised that this sociology text had so many psychological underpinnings. Then again, the two disciplines are highly interrelated. Still, the Freudian idea that earliest memories and parental practices affects everything may rub some readers the wrong way.

The author is clearly a feminist and not just some neutral observer. I support women's rights, so that didn't bother me. However, other readers may indict her for "having an agenda." To me, however, pointing gender inequality is a legitimate aim. Both her discussions on nursing and the Marines mentioned the military often. Thus, I am surprised that she did not directly cite the feminist military scholar Cynthia Enloe.

The book starts off by saying, "In the same way studying transgendered people tells us a lot about mainstream gender, so does studying female Marines and male nurses tell us about gender in the workplace over all." I would argue that transgendered people have not been studied enough, especially as they deal with the employment settings. I hope more scholars take on that project.

My biggest critique of this book is how lesbians and lesbophobia is mostly ignored. The author notes that heterosexual male nurses go out of their way to announce their sexual orientation and that gay male nurses may not receive the advantages that their straight counterparts do. She also mentions gay men being expelled from the military. However, huge numbers of lesbians get expelled from the military too. Because this book was published in 1989, Dr. Williams did not have the benefit of numerous books printed in the 1990s that spoke about lesbian oppression in the military. Still, gay rights activist Urvashi Vaid noted that discrimination against women and specifically lesbians has been a longstanding feminist issue. Dr. Williams doesn't even state that the military's discriminatory policies may be why women's inclusion in the Marine Corps is taken as a given. Dr. Williams' erasure here is quite problematic.

Dr. Williams quotes several men who say that they did not have the money to attend medical school and thus they became nurses. I don't buy that one bit! You can get loans for med school if you have the grades. Getting into medical school is difficult for anybody. Undergraduate nursing courses don't stress a premedical curriculum in the way that science departments do. Getting into medical schools is such an intense weeding process that the argument the informants present here cannot possibly true.

From the start, Dr. Williams confesses that finding female Marines to talk was much easier than finding male nurses. I know it's taboo to rank oppressions, but I wish the author had spoken about how male femininity is punished in society more than female masculinity. Parents discipline girly boys and laugh off tomboyishness. Women can wear pants, but men are punished for wearing dresses. Thus, maybe men will be punished more for entering nursing than women who enter the Marine Corps.

I enjoyed this book, just as I do everything Dr. Williams writes. She is an insightful and promising academic. Gender radicals and traditionalists should investigate what she has to say.

Great reference book for a communication class and writing a paper regarding men and women in the workplace and their communication styles