The Center for Nursing Advocacy
Free RN patches or a pen when you join or renew news campaigns media reviews nurse-driven media research-sources Join now and receive three free RN patches Free RN patches or a pen when you join or renew Join our Grey's Anatomy campaign! Join our Grey's Anatomy campaign! Join our House campaign! Join our ER campaign! press room FAQs Email Print about us contact us our donors please donate become a member chapters discussion forums archives search

Should we use the indefinite pronoun "she" to refer to nurses, since most nurses are female?

When referring to nurses, we suggest using the indefinite pronoun “he” instead of "she" at least half the time. Of course, "he" should not be used when it is plainly inappropriate, as in references to pregnant or lactating nurses.

Since about 6% of practicing US nurses are male today, one idea might be to use “he” 94% of the time and “she” 6% of the time, then adjust the ratio as the percentage of men in nursing increases, until one day (we hope) the genders have roughly equal representation.