The potential impact of gender stereotypes for nursing research

The move towards evidence-based health care has meant an increasing pressure on paramedical professionals to become more research aware and research active. However, despite various initiatives designed to encourage research, there remains within nursing a notable paucity of relevant published research. While numerous explanations have been put forward in an attempt to account for this shortfall, they have tended to focus on structural/organizational barriers rather than difficulties located at the individual level. However, Hicks, in studies of midwives and nurse managers suggests that one critical perspective may be the stereotypes and assumptions associated with the nursing profession, these being so diametrically opposed to the core skills required of researchers that they operate as a natural deterrent to research activities of any sort. Embedded within this theory is the notion of gender roles, which are archetypally feminine for nursing yet archetypally masculine for research. However, Hicks' studies, which were both variants of Asch's Central Trait Theory, focused on women both as the hypothetical subject of the exercise involved and as participants. If research is bound up with gender attributions in the way she suggests, it would be necessary to ask if this is still relevant when the gender of the hypothetical figure at the centre of the study is changed. To this end, the present study was conducted which, apart from the modification just highlighted, was a replication of Hicks' earlier studies. In brief, two groups of participants rated a hypothetical male candidate for a nursing post along 15 bipolar dimensions. The candidate had been described by his referee using six adjectives, of which five were identical for each group. However, the final phrase used to describe the first group's candidate was "good clinician' while for the second group it was "good researcher'. The ratings given by the two groups along the 15 dimensions were then compared. It was found that the male applicant described as a good researcher was assumed to be more successful, more ambitious, more confident and more ruthless than one described as a good clinician. The implications of these results are discussed in relation to gender theories and nursing research.