In a paper published by Advances in Nursing Science, Assistant Professor Candace W. Burton, PhD, states that gender expectations in nursing must be reckoned with.
“Caring” is among the feminine-assigned behaviors, but career advancement and assertiveness are often seen as masculine.
Assigning traditional binary gender roles and norms within nursing education and science potentially limits diversity and innovation in the profession.
Burton calls for nurses to shed the old ideas about nurses, that they are subservient to other healthcare disciplines, ministering angels and perfect “ladies.”
Rather, they need to be seen as the independent, creative, scholarly, assertive and forward-thinking professionals that they are.
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