Nursing - A Man's Job?

In my American Studies class the other day, we were talking about professions that were stereotyped as being a man’s job or a woman’s job.  For example, the stereotypical depiction of a nurse is almost always of a woman. Recently, however, increasing amounts of men have gone into the profession, and as this has happened, the overall earnings of a nurse have gone up.  As a result of this discussion in class, I began to wonder about why that could be.  I was also curious as to whether or not a male nurse makes more money than a female nurse in general.

I found an interesting article from CBS News titled “Number of male U.S. nurses triple since 1970”, the link for which can be found here: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57571330/number-of-male-u.s-nurses-triple-since-1970/. Ryan Jaslow, the author, wrote “for all types of nursing, men earned, on average, $60,700 per year, while women earned $51,100 per year.”  He also mentioned that among the same nursing jobs, men still make more than women. When I heard this, I immediately assumed that this difference must be the result of sexism.

However, upon reading the article a second time, I noticed some key points.  Although men only make up about 10 percent of the nurse population, 41 percent of nurse anesthetists (by far the highest paid job in the field) are men.  This explains why the difference in pay from males to females is so great. But now the question is why are there so many more men involved in anesthesia.

I can see why many people would be inclined to think that this is a direct result of sexism, however, I must disagree.  If anything, I think the sexism would go against the man; according to the article I referenced, men were not allowed into many nursing schools until recently.  I think that men just choose to pick a higher paying and more demanding job than women because traditionally (and still to this day in most families), men are expected to make most of the family’s income.  Also, women usually have demanding responsibilities around the house and it is usually their job to take care of the children, so they sometimes don’t have as much time for an additional demanding job.  This explanation would account for why there is a difference in pay for the two genders even among nurses of the same specialty; female nurses do not have the time to work as many hours as the male nurses and therefore are not paid as much.  Choice plays a significant role in this disparity – women may prioritize family over work, while men may do the opposite.

I know my theory may not be correct, so please comment if you have other explanations or ideas.