Gender plays role on campus

Gender roles haven't changed much in the last 50 years says Jennifer Jones, professor of psychology of human sexuality.

"I think they haven't changed enough, unfortunately," she said in an e-mail interview. "In many ways, Victorian ideas about sexuality and gender still persist today."

Jones said the advent of oral contraception and women in the workforce have led what change there has been. She defined gender roles as society's expectation of an individual's behavior based on anatomy.

It is often difficult for women to enter some fields because of stereotypes, she said.

Zhen Yuan, a chemical engineering student, said she doesn't mind being one of the few females in her field.

Yuan said department professors pay more attention to female students because they are a minority.

"They are trying to encourage the female students to work in engineering," she said.

Yuan said she has two female engineering professors and good relationships with male engineering students. They often lift heavy objects for her, she said, which she doesn't mind.

Frisia Colon said it's good to be a girl in the chemical engineering department.

She said people jump when she tells them she's going into the engineering field.

"They look at me weird because I'm a girl," Colon said. "I don't feel offended. I feel proud, because I'm brave."

Yuan said she hopes one day people won't be surprised.

"Men and women can do the same," she said.

Jones said men are also subject to stereotypes in professions such as nursing.

"Male nurses are still the subject of derisive humor," Jones said.

Nursing student Jonathan Thomas said three myths are associated with male nurses: they're gay, soft spoken or effeminate.

"Feminine traits are assigned to you before people even know you," Thomas said.

Thomas said he left the restaurant business in Miami to return to school and become a nurse. He said he faced some ridicule from family back home, but people in the Southwest are more progressive in breaking down stereotypes and gender roles.

He said there have been male nurses in the military for a long time, and because Albuquerque has a military base, people are more accepting of the profession.

Thomas said stereotypes that go along with being a male nurse are a result of a misunderstanding about what kind of job nursing is. He said people don't realize how much education is required to become a nurse.

Thomas works in the general surgery unit at UNM Hospital with plenty of other male nurses, but male nurses are still a minority. He said being a male nurse doesn't come up in the work setting.

Thomas said he knows of eight male nursing students, and it doesn't go unnoticed in his classes.

"We're noticed just because we're different," he said. "Everyone knows the names of the eight guys."

Instead of having mostly male professors, they are female.

Thomas said the male students receive preferential treatment.

"Some professors will single out male students unconsciously," he said.

The male nurses don't ask for it - it's just thrown at them, he said.

But if people are going to single out others based on stereotypes, he said, it should be used as an advantage.

"If people are silly enough to treat us differently, why mess with it?" he said.