Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This article examines why men enter female-dominated occupations by using the case study of nursing. Research on men’s entrance into atypical fields has looked at either motivational or career paths differences between men and women. I integrate these approaches by examining how men’s prior work experience influences their subsequent career decisions and motivations. I find that male nurses are more likely to have had a prior healthcare job and this exposure helps them to recast nursing from a “female-only” job to an acceptable career choice. This reorientation job experience is a way for men to overcome informal barriers of "social control" (Jacobs 1989) to entering a female-dominated occupation.