Current Connection

In the article "Why aren't there a lot of male dental hygienists," it states many reasons why it is a female dominated field. The purpose of this article is to show that males get negatively impacted by this because there are many males that want to go into this field, but they wont because they will get judged if they do.


There are many dentists out there that may not want a male assistant, they prefer a female. Although that may be true that's not the only reason why females dominate this profession. "Similar to nursing, it has historically been a female dominated profession. I think this is due to the patriarchal expectations where the man is the doctor and the woman is his second." In history females always have came in second. That's why women are very slim in the doctor fields, its always men. To me men are scared they will be judged if they go into this field.


"Dental assistance is a job that requires the most delicate and cautious hands – and females are known to have these kinds of hands. This may seem discriminatory but this is a known fact." This is another reason why men do not want to go into this field. This is stereotypical. Most men are very strong and muscular and dentist do not want that as their assistants, but some men are kind of skinny and not as muscular and don't you think that if they wanted to go in this field wouldn't that be acceptable?


"choose the careful female hands more than the rough handling done by male hands." People may prefer little soft hands to work on there mouth than manly hands, but what do they think there dentists hands are? Your dentist is a male with big hands. What is the difference between your dentist being a male and the assistant being one to?


I was talking with my friends about this topic the other day and they agreed with me. If men want to do a female dominated job then they should be able to without being judged. This is the same with women if they wanted to go into a male dominated field then they should be able to. They way our society is brought up is that reason why we think the way we do. If our society was not stereotypical about gender roles then maybe there would be more men in this field.


Gender roles plays a big part in the dental field. Men are being stereotyped for wanting to go into this field and that is wrong. That is why there aren't very many men in this field because one they don't want to come in second like women and they don't want to be made fun of. We need to change our society so it will not be like this.