It's not uncommon when discussing your field with other scholars and the wider general public to encounter misconceptions - but what is the one misconception you encounter most frequently?
The main misconception/stereotype in my discipline (nursing), for me, is that around gender and sexuality. For one, males are not seen as having a caring capacity - even though no gender has a monopoly on caring and much of clinical nursing practice is technical. The other main misconception is the 'sexual orientation' of males in nursing. I have no problem with anyone's sexual orientation, in any discipline, but the stereotype is often a very unhelpful one - especially in recruiting males to nursing. Approximately, in most Westernised countries - about 10% of nurses are males. In a profession that has acute shortages globally - that's a significant proportion of the population that is/feels excluded. The other point to make here is - is the misconception professionally-based or public/lay-based. In this case, i would argue that it is the public misconception that impacts the most.
Heh heh. Among the general public, the most common misperception about electrical engineering is that you spend your whole time with wires, components, and soldering irons.
My observation is that when made aware of the actual work, the general public considers what is electrical engineering to be physics, what is physics to be mathematics, and what is theoretical math to be incomprehensible!
I know very little about that field - and would have assumed the same sadly, I should read more in different fields.
The main misconception/stereotype in my discipline (nursing), for me, is that around gender and sexuality. For one, males are not seen as having a caring capacity - even though no gender has a monopoly on caring and much of clinical nursing practice is technical. The other main misconception is the 'sexual orientation' of males in nursing. I have no problem with anyone's sexual orientation, in any discipline, but the stereotype is often a very unhelpful one - especially in recruiting males to nursing. Approximately, in most Westernised countries - about 10% of nurses are males. In a profession that has acute shortages globally - that's a significant proportion of the population that is/feels excluded. The other point to make here is - is the misconception professionally-based or public/lay-based. In this case, i would argue that it is the public misconception that impacts the most.
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