Does the future of nursing promise a degenderizing of the occupation?: A sociological analysis of male and female nursing students’ tendencies to relate occupations to gender

The number of male undergraduate nursing students in Turkey is rapidly increasing since 2007. Drawing on the data of a quantitative research conducted in Eskisehir in 2015, this paper aims to comparatively describe male and female nursing students on the aspects of reasons of choosing nursing, thoughts on nursing occupation, relating occupations with sexes, and accepting gender stereotypes. A questionnaire was applied to the sample of 232 undergraduate nursing students and SPSS is used to analyze data. In comparison with female students, male students show a higher agreement to statements including male nurses should work in different areas than women nurses, should be nursing managers and should use a title other than nurse. Compared to female students, male students give more support to traditional patriarchal gender roles and establish a stronger relationship between occupations and sexes both for nursing and some other occupations.