Chapter 16 - The Gendered Nature of Nursing PDF

The Gendered Nature of Nursing Chapter 16 Copyright © 2014 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins  Objectives Understand the idea of gender as socially constructed and the ways that gender is bound by c...

The Gendered Nature of Nursing Chapter 16 Copyright © 2014 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins  Objectives Understand the idea of gender as socially constructed and the ways that gender is bound by cultural, temporal, and social realities Recognize gender as attributed to both individuals as well as to larger realities, such as the profession of nursing Recognize gender as one of a number of intersecting identities, including race, class, age, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, through which we are uniquely constituted as individuals Copyright © 2014 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins  Objectives (cont.) Articulate the nature of nurses’ work, nurses’ knowledge, and nurses’ public representation as gendered, and discuss the historical social discourses of women’s work and nurses’ work that have contributed to this understanding Discuss the barriers that interfere with resolution of issues that arise from relations of power and gender and the significance attributed to nurses’ work Identify strategies that will serve to interrupt the taken- for-granted notions of gendered work that underlie the devaluing of nurses’ work Copyright © 2014 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins  Articulating the Issue for Nursing Gender is a concept in our society that is simultaneously taken for granted and poorly understood. Gender in the text refers to the ways in which a person lives a life that demonstrates or reflects masculinity and femininity. Gender itself is not an “issue” in nursing; what is problematic for the profession is that gender is inextricably linked to relations of power. Copyright © 2014 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins  The Gender Binary The commonly used binary genders are the taken-for- granted categories of boy/girl or man/woman assumed by many to be closely linked to the biological sex categories of male and female. It is in childhood that we are acculturated to the social regulations that underpin our local world. Copyright © 2014 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins  Gender as Socially Constructed As concepts, gender, women’s work, and nursing itself derive their meaning in society through social construction. The lack of clarity between concepts of gender and biologic sex supports the tendency to keep our understandings of gender superficial. In recognizing how dominant social discourses influence who we are to be, the production of identity becomes a discursive process. Copyright © 2014 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins  The Gendered Nurse as Socially Constructed In exploring the working lives of Canadian women, Angus notes that the “labor force is characterized by marked horizontal (occupational) and vertical (hierarchical) gender divisions.” The challenges that women often negotiate as the primary caregivers in their personal or familial situations along with the demands of professional nursing practice are rigorous. Nursing practice has long been equated with “female virtues,” the virtues of care, nurturance, and altruism. Copyright © 2014 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins  Analyzing the Issue Historical analysis of the issue Sociocultural analysis of the issue Critical feminist analysis of the issue – Gender and the intersectionality of identity – Stereotypical gender attributes – Discourses of care – Men in nursing Copyright © 2014 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins  The Effects of Gender in Nurses’ Lives Explicating the assumptions underlying different approaches to knowledge generation in nursing helps nurses avoid unquestioning conformity to existing knowledge. The kinds of knowledge that are valued and prioritized in nursing education are clearly reflective of the gendered nature of the profession. The concept of the mandate of nurses’ education toward producing graduates of a particular moral character remains covertly present in social discourses. Copyright © 2014 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins  Barriers to and Strategies for Issue Resolution “The dilemma of nursing is too tied into the broader problems of gender and class in our society to be solved solely by the political efforts of one occupational group.” The following are considered barriers: – The gendered nature of work in general – The effects of power and gender – Historically, nurses have lacked a critical feminist analysis that provides a framework to critique and question the taken-for- granted discourses. Copyright © 2014 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins  Barriers to and Strategies for Issue Resolution (cont.) – Gendered divisions of labor ingrained in society – Understandings of the gendered nature of nurses’ work are impaired by the larger lack of clarity and articulation. – Individual efforts to disrupt the taken-for-granted ideas of gender require one to challenge social discourses. Copyright © 2014 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins  Summary Central to the issue of the gendered nature of nurses’ work is social discourse about gender and the inherent value attributed to nurses’ work. The gendered nature of nurses’ work and education has been with us since the inception of nursing. The significance of nurses’ work parallels the devaluing of care in society that has increasingly valued science and a production-focused economy. The current and perhaps more difficult challenge is to recognize the less overt but no less present discourses of gender that structure current nursing practices. Copyright © 2014 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins