I interviewed Brian Sanders, 21, of Bangor, Maine. He has
been working about a year and a half as a certified nurses assistant. When
asked what got him interested in this work, he explains that it was one of the only
trades he was interested in and is fond of caring for people.
Brian confirms that he works in a female-dominated field,
but he enjoys and socializes with his co-workers outside of the veteran’s home.
When asked how he gets along with his patients, Brian said:
“Oh god, they love me. Being one of the few guys there, they know who I am and they tell me all the girls look the same.”
Throughout the interview we talked about the kind of work
Brian’s job entails and the sometimes physically, almost always mentally
laborious nature of this work, caring for the elderly and disabled. It is
interesting to examine a male perspective in doing this work. Old gender
stereotypes might suggest that women are better suit for these nurturing roles,
but my interviewee proves that men are capable of nurture and are finding just
as much satisfaction in this field.
I asked Brian if he ever felt pressure to “move up the
ladder” so-to-speak, or to become a doctor. His response: “Oh yeah, all the
time.”
This is consistent with “the glass escalator” effect,
described in a study cited below, titled, The
Glass Escalator: Hidden Advantages for Men in the “Female” Professions. The
phenomenon of men who work in female-dominated fields being fast-tracked to
higher-paying positions is not unique to Brian. What was fascinating about
Brian’s case is the fact that his supervisors are not the only ones who
encourage him to go back to school and become a doctor. He says that many of
his patients advise him to as well:
"Some of them are very, very old school, and they don’t think it’s very proper [that he’s a CNA]."
All in all, Brian notes that he is keen of his job and he is
not interested in becoming a doctor. In explaining why, he says that doctors
just don’t have time for the patients, and helping these people one-on-one is
what he loves to do.
Here is a link to a transcript of the interview and below is the study referenced in this article
Kimmel, Michael S., Michael A. Messner, and Christine L. Williams. "The Glass Escalator: Hidden Advantages for Men in the ‘Female’ Professions." Men's Lives. 9th ed. Boston: Pearson, 2013. 152-65. Print.
