Now, I am a critical care nurse. I work in a predominantly female field. It has been an interesting transition. I have noticed some differences in the two environments, obviously. Some subtle, some not so.
- The locker room I share with women smells better than any I had to use before. Typically, if only one changing area was available, I would use the space first. I learned early on to never, never agree to go in second after the guys were done.
- Women cry more than men over little things. But we all cry the same over big things.
- Women really are concerned about what makes their butt look big.
- Men don't care where they scratch. Or who is watching. Most men will rearrange their junk to suit them during a hot day on the range. Extensively so.
- Men don't necessarily do things better than women; they just think they ought to.
- Most men speak more directly, confront strife more directly, and settle it more directly. Women quite often resort to 'bitch sniping', a term I used to refer to the psychic sideswipes that some women use as an alternative to direct confrontation. It usually includes a louder, higher pitched tone that delivers a shame-assigning observation rather than constructive input or even a question, as in: what is this about? Some nurses have it perfected so that, before you realize it, you are feeling little and blamed and inadequate. I think settling things with the full knowledge that you're both armed makes it easier to be both direct and diplomatic. I think if some nurses had their noses broken in hand-to-hand or got knocked on their ass a time or two, they might realize that direct and diplomatic is better than shrill, blameful and indirect any day. (Yes, it is the voice of experience speaking...)
- Men are more generous or nonchalant with their money than women are. Going out for a pint is much more casual, with less 'who bought what/what is the tip/let's split the cost of this'...
- Patients assume the men are doctors and the women are nurses.
- Men are no more crude than women, generally. But women will give intimate details of their sex lives and body more readily than men. Men play that pretty close to the vest.
- Wives make lunches for their spouses more often than husbands do.
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