This study intends to gain understanding of male assistant nurses’ experiences of working in a female-dominated industry. The empirical material is based on eight interviews with male assistant nurses working in elderly care. To understand the experiences that have been illustrated we have used Connells (2009) and Hirdmans (2003) gender theories and Alvesson & Billings (2011) theory about the labour markets segregation.   The majority of the male assistant nurses described the career choice as a coincidence, although a number of underlying factors emerged. Such as the social factor and good job opportunities in elderly care. The characteristics that the male assistant nurses believed where required for the job where the ability to empathize and to be calm. They also highlighted the differences they experienced in terms of the characteristics between men and women. The male nurses claimed to possess physical strength and efficiency, while women possess the opposite characteristics. The experiences also illustrated the division of labour that appears in the elderly care, where men are expected to do tasks that are technically, mentally and physically demanding more frequently than female colleagues. The male assistant nurses’ experiences also portrayed prejudices and resistors from female patients when it comes to tasks that include personal hygiene. Some female patients do not want the help from men. The men also pointed out the advantages they experience when it comes to tasks such as cleaning and laundry, privileges they possess due to gender.   The result shows that it appears gender stereotypes regarding the division of labour as portrayed by the male nurse’s experiences. Tasks are often distributed by gender, which leads to a gendered division in the elderly care. This means that the male nurse’s masculinity is maintained even if the elderly care is associated with women. When men enter elderly care a gendered division of labour emerges. There also emerges some sort of balance between acting and behaving masculine due to gender, whilst maintaining female characteristics that the job requires.

Detta är en kvalitativ studie som har genomförts med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer med sex manliga respondenter i åldern 23-45. Studiens syfte är att öka förståelsen för hur manliga undersköterskor upplever könsskillnader och psykosociala faktorer inom äldreomsorgen. En kvalitativ design valdes framför en kvantitativ då vi även hade intresse att undersöka vad män värdesätter i sin yrkesroll, hur män upplever sin minoritet som undersköterska och hur män upplever psykosociala faktorer som samvetsstress och psykosocial stress. Vårt studieresultat visar att männen skiljer sig från den kvinnligt kodade normen vad gäller yrkesutövning och psykosociala faktorer. Resultatet visar även att det behövs fler män inom vården och att ytterligare forskning kring manliga undersköterskor anses vara optimalt för att kunna öka rekryterings möjligheterna av manliga undersköterskor inom äldreomsorgen. Genom vår studie kunde vi finna stora brister i forskning kring psykosocial faktorer som behandlar män. Vi finner att ytterligare studier kring mäns psykosociala faktorer bör utövas genom observation då männen själva har svårt att identifiera sin egen psykosociala upplevelse. / This is a qualitative study conducted by semistructured interviews with six male respondents in ages of 23-45. The aim of the study is to increase the understanding of how male nurses experience gender differences and psychosocial factors in elderly care. A qualitative design was chosen instead of a quantitative because we also had an interest in investigating what men value in their professional role as a nurse in elderly care, how they experience their minority as male nurses and how men experience psychosocial factors such as stress of conscience and psychosocial stress. Our study results shows that men are different from the female coded norm in terms of professional role and psychosocial factors. The results also shows that more men in the elderly care are needed, and further research on male nurses is considered optimally in order to increase the recruitment opportunities of male nurses in the elderly care. Through our study, we found major lack in psychosocial research that is dealing with men's psychosocial factors. We find that further studies on men's psychosocial factors should be performed through observation because the male in our study find it difficult to identify their own psychosocial experiences.