Ethnography Paper

Research Design: I was very interested in Kingsley R. Browne's essay about seuxal equality, especially in the work place. I began to read the section entitled nuturance, empathy and interest in children when I realized that there may be some truth to his view point. He states that women are the primary caretakers of young people, the sick and the old. Certain studies have shown that women exhibit more empathy for people than men. I believe in total equality, but realized this may not be the case. I decided to research how male nurses and female nurses are treated differently in the workplace. My mother has been a nurse for over ten years, and she claims that men may be treated differently, not by the employer, but by the patients themselves. I wanted to see if Browne did have some truth to his theory and how my mother felt about it.

Methodology: I decided to go to my mother's work, where I also worked for one summer, to see how the males nurses were accepted. My mother works at a cardiologist's office in Oklahoma City. I went and observed for one full work day to see how the patients and the doctors treated male and female nurses differently.

Interview: (my mother)

How do you feel the patients view male nurses versus female nurses?
The one thing I have always noticed is that the patients always refer to male nurses as doctors and female doctors as nurses. It doesn't matter what the nurses wear (whether the female doctor is in plain scrubs, or a suit and dotor's jacket, or the male nurse is wearing scrubs or a clinic jacket) the men are always refered to as doctors by the patients.

Do you feel you male and female nurses are treated differently by your employer?
We work in a big group, but I only work under one doctor. My doctor has chosen to hire all females, a registered nurse, a medical assistant and a physician's assistant. He always treats us with respect and so does our company. I have never felt unappreciated. As for the male nurses, there are only a few in our company and again, they are always thought of as doctors by the patients. The doctors they work for treat them just as the would any other registered nurse.

How do patients perceive a female doctor or male nurse?
Every time a male nurse brings back a patient and asks them the normal questions a nurse would, the patients always believe them to be doctors. Once I go in the room to follow up they always refer to the male nurse as a doctor. I have to explain to them that he is a registered nurse just like I am..they are always a little thrown back at first. I think it is the patients that treat the males differently than the females.

Do you think you would have been hired at your position if you were male?
I would like to think yes, but who knows. I have worked for my doctor for over ten years and would like to think he does not consider sex as a factor in hiring. We did have a male physician's assistant that worked with us a year or so ago, but he didn't last long. The P.A. did not last long due to the way he treated myself and the medical assistant. I felt he had no respect for nurses in general and it just ended up not working out. The doctor I work for respects my opinion and treats me how I should be treated professionally.

Field Notes: I think there is some definite truth to Browne's article. After observing the male nurses and female doctors in a hospital setting, it was clear that they were treated differently. The patients constantly assumed all males were doctors and all females were nurses. I believe it does have to do with Browne's theory of women being more nuturing. Most people don't want a male taking care of them due to the fact they don't think they will get the most appropriate care; not that the males can't do their jobs, but they might not be as compassionate as females.

Write up: I am all about gender equality, but it is inevitable that people treat males and females differently. I am glad to find that the company treats everyone equally, but it's the public that may feel differently. I understand there are differences between men and women and a certain sex may be better at a job than the other, but everyone should have the right to work in their chosen profession. I felt that this was the case at my mother's work; everyone who worked there was treated equally, however there was an overwhelming amount of female nurses over male nurses and more male doctors than female doctors. Again, I think this is society's fault more than the company itself, but it was very interesting in hearing my mother's opinion after being in the nurse's workforce for so long.

Blog 8

Belkin believes more and more women are "opting-out" of jobs and becoming stay at home mothers. These leaves room for several arguments. For example, many women feel they were pushed out of the work force. Women are lucky if they get any more than 6 weeks at home after their baby is born, and the women who want to take more are then forced to leave their jobs because their company won't hold their position. Other women argued that Belkin's statistics were unrealistic because not every woman has the choice to work or stay at home. Belkin's article focused on women that had the option to choose what they wanted to do. Not everyone has that option, women who are single mothers can't possibly stay at home and provide for their child. People were outraged with Belkin's article because Belkin said that opting-out was a revolution, a new trend. When she hadn't even done all of the correct research. I do not have children yet, but I don't think anyone should care no matter what I chose, whether it be to stay at home or work. My parents both work full time when I was younger and I went to daycare or school all day. I had two older sisters that helped out those couple of hours where school ended until my parents got home. We never had any problems with my parents working. My mom chooses to work because she loves it. All three of her children are grown up and out of the house and she still works at least 45 hours a week. I don't think there should be anything to argue over, it's your personal opinion and what works with your lifestyle and family.

Blog 7

I recently saw the movie Burn After Reading. This movie was probably the most bizarre movie I've ever seen. There were several story lines going on, but they all ended up connecting in the end. The trailer of this movie looked a lot more interesting and normal from what the movie really was. It seemed like a comedy movie with some really good actors, including Brad Pitt and George Clooney. However, once you saw the movie, it was a whole different story. The movie was about a few friends who worked at a gym together found what they thought to be a "top-secret" disc containing information from the CIA, however it was really nothing. An older lady and her friend (Brad Pitt) take this CD and try to get money by blackmailing the owner of the CD all for plastic surgery money. The older woman tries everything to get the surgeries she wants, which include liposuction, face lift, nose job, etc. She will do anything for these surgeries because she thinks it is the only way she will find a man. The other woman in this film is having an affair on her husband and is going to leave him for the other man. When in reality, the man she is having an affair with is a sex addict and is just using her. I won't spoil the ending, but women were not portrayed well in this movie at all. The older woman needed platic surgery to find a man, and the other was having an affair and being played by another man.

As for the readings, after reading the section on divorce of chapter 7 of The F Word, make me never even want to try marriage. People are definitely getting married too young and for the wrong reasons. People change so much in a 5 year span, I can't imagine what I will be like from my age now (21) until fiver years down the road when I will be 26. People need to realize marriage isn't all fun and games and that it takes a lot of work. The book said that "nearly half of recent first marriages may end in divorce, and most people remarry after divorcing from a first marriage." This is where I think maturity comes in, and people need to realize that they will be constantly changing throughout their life, and need to find a person that is changing in similar ways to their spouse.

Blog 6

In this ad, women are represented as being annoying on airplanes. This ad is for Sony Noise Canceling Headphones, and it shows the man wearing the headphones to block out the sound coming from the women, whose heads are megaphones. It is portraying women as being loud, obnoxious and annoying. I found a website that had several hundreds of advertisements categorized into females in ads, men in ads, together in ads, objectification and several other categories. It was very interesting to see women portrayed as animals, stupid, naggers, violent, etc. I thought the ad I chose tied in several categories such as women being naggers, stupid, not worth listening to, etc. I can't imagine that women are the ones behind the scenes creating such ads, I know I would never come up with an idea to make women look dumb. I am still confused on the strategy behind several of these ads, I know seeing this ad definitely does not make me want to buy these noise cancelling head phones. I don't need to block out any women in my life.

As for the readings, The Beauty Myth was very intersting to read. After talking about it in class and reading the article there are many things that once again I had never really thought about. Women are struggling with their looks the most these days, but women are allowing society to control their views. Instead of being comftorable in our bodies, people are getting cosmetic surgery and weight-loss surgery, because they want to be a part of society's "norm." If women want to change how society looks at us, then we need to stop conforming to what they want us to look like.