Ethnicity, Gender and Equality in the NHS

Abstract

This chapter examines the position of minority ethnic workers in the National Health Service (NHS). It investigates the processes that lead to the concentration of workers of different ethnic origins in different types of work. Nursing is a highly gendered profession. In the two hospitals where my research took place, which I have called the Royal Bridgetown Infirmary and Lime Grove Psychiatric Hospital, the nursing workforces were 91 per cent and 74 per cent female respectively. This reflects the fact that, traditionally, there have been more male nurses in psychiatric hospitals partly because of the occasionally violent nature of the patients.