Male Nurses More ‘Manly’ Than Most Men

Male nurses get very little respect. They have what many consider a “women’s job” even though they help save lives each and every day. Male nurses shouldn’t care what people think though, because according to new research, they have more masculine traits than the average guy.

The research, conducted by East Tennessee State University, had male nursing students and other men enrolled at the school fill out “masculinity tests” which apparently exist in real life and not just in beer commercials. According to the article “participants were shown a list of characteristics — including ‘affectionate’ and ‘willing to take a stand’ — and asked to say how well each characteristic described them, on a scale of 1 to 7.” The average masculinity score for the male nursing students was 5.3 out of a possible 7. The other guys averaged only a 4.9.

This actually makes a lot of sense. Sure, a nurse is traditionally a woman’s job, but it involves ‘manly’ tasks like lifting heavy things (and people), restraining patients, dealing with nut jobs and cleaning up human waste and bodily fluids. You need a stomach of iron and a complex technical education to be a nurse. It’s an incredibly manly position that just sometimes happens to involve pink scrubs.

[Via Daily Mail]