Is the word "Nurse" sexist and does it discourage men?

We've changed the names of traditionally male professions to make them gender neutral, such as firefighter and police officer. We changed "workmen's compensation" to worker's compensation. There are countless examples. Why do we still use the feminine term "nurse" for these medical assistants. Isn't that unfair to men who don't pursue the occupation because the name would be embarrassing?

Hahaha. Well, if you ever saw the movie "Meet the Parents" Ben Stiller was a male nurse, dating Robert DeNiro's daughter. His name was Gaylord Focker, and DeNiro ran all over that combination. Hilarious, but you felt Focker's pain every time "nurse" was mentioned.

I agree, nurse has a feminine connotation, though as a verb it does mean "take care of the sick" ....as well as breastfeed! So, I think'd be nice if we got a new, neutral term for the position. Something like paramedic... maybe depending upon their specialy, or just plain old medical assistant.

that's a good point, i agree with that

yes

Sorry but this does put off men.

Instead of calling them nurses call them "medical assistants"

Yes it is sexist.. and i admit that i find it weird when i mean says he's a nurse!

Not gay men.

We don't call them nurse-women, or nurse-men, so I would not see how this is sexist at all. Maybe one may think it sexist because it is perceived as a female job, but the name its self does not really tell you if one is a man or a woman.

I agree with Janice. I was once a 'paramedic' who worked with male AND female partners. Some of them were old enough to be my Mother when I started. 'Nurse' is simply a job title, it has nothing to do with gender. It is only people's perceptions which make it so at times. As with my own job, I've worked with many male and female Nurses. (and many female or male Doctors) And I can attest to the fact that sexual orientation has no bearing on choosing the job either.

I don't think nurse HAS to sound sexist, it doesn't include the word man or men like "workmen's compensation", "fireman", etc., its just a cultural connotation that has been tacked on to it. I don't think it's unfair either, I think it's a notion that needs to be changed with education and popularity. It's all about people's perceptions. For example, I'm an engineer and a female. The engineering field has had lots more women in it in my generation, but some of the older women tell me stories about how they were discouraged from being engineers because it was a man's job, and being a secretary would be better suited. These things just take time to change.

The terms you list used to be specifically male: fireMAN, policeMAN, workMAN.

The term nurse is NOT specifically female. The derivation of the term is from feminine functions (specifically, the nursing of infants), but the term has been divorced from its derivation.