Why do some men become elementary school teachers? Social workers? Nurses? The
entrance of men into female-dominated occupations has received less scholarly attention than
women's entrance into male-dominated jobs for many reasons. For one, the phenomenon is rarer
because men are much less likely to enter atypical work than women (Bradley 1992; Jacobs 1989;
Staiger, Auerbach and Buerhaus 2000; Williams 1993) partly because there are simply less female-
dominated occupations than male-dominated ones (Jacobs 1993). Also, women's "[a]ccess to male-
dominated fields seems essential for women's economic and social advancement" (Jacobs 1993: 49).
However, although the movement of men into atypical fields has received less scholarly attention,
"looking at segregation as something that happens only to women gives us only a partial picture.
Occupational sex segregation is a two-way street: It is just as important to understand what keeps men
out of female jobs as it is understand what keep women out of male jobs" (Williams 1993: 2).
But why are men less likely to enter female-dominated fields? Female-dominated
occupations have fewer benefits for men than male-dominated jobs in terms of pay and prestige
(Bradley 1992; Jacobs 1993) and "evidence suggests that male avoidance of female-dominated
occupations may not simply reflect pecuniary considerations but powerful social pressures as well"
(Jacobs 1993: 50). Female-dominated jobs are equated with feminized activities such as caring for
children or supportive roles such as being a secretary or a nurse. Moreover, men in these jobs can
be perceived as effeminate, homosexual or even as a sexual predator (as in the case of male
elementary school teachers, see Allan 1993). Despite the lack of pay-offs for men who enter these
fields, why do some men enter nontraditional occupations? In this paper, I examine how and why
some men enter female-dominated occupations by looking at the case study of registered nursing.
Those who have looked at why men choose (or end up in) nontraditional jobs have either
consider motivational differences between men and women or present models (e.g., "trap door")
looking at the paths of men into and out of female-dominated occupations. In understanding why
men enter nursing, I consider both perspectives by comparing the motivations and career paths of
men and women who are registered nurses. I find that the men in this study, unlike the women, are
much more likely to have had a related job in healthcare such as being a nursing assistant before
2
Convention