[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Division of Labor

[Kathryn]

-------Original Message-------

From: HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com
Date: 19 July 2002 16:20:36
To: HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Division of Labor

Cindy, taking "division of labor" literally, responded:

> I can think of one. Male labor and delivery nurse. I read a labor 
> law case in which a particular hospital barred a male nurse from 
> this specialty. Too many female patients objected to having him as 
> their nurse while they were delivering a baby. He sued, and *he 
> lost!* The court said gender under these circumstances was a BFOQ 
> (Bona Fide Occupational Qualification) and the hospital could take 
> customer preferences for female nurses into account in deciding how 
> to staff the position of labor and delivery nurse. So he lost his 
> job because of his *gender.*

Yikes! That does surprise me, and I hope it's just a case of a bad 
decision that won't be replicated too many places. Given how many 
women I know have been perfectly happy to have a male obstetrician, I 
can't imagine that many hospitals really find their patients won't 
tolerate a male nurse in the delivery room.

Amy

Do you think maybe it depends when they asked the female patients. Maybe
three or four months before they deliver they object in theory to having a
male nurse but I'm thinking when they arrive at the hospital in labour most
of them wouldn't care if the nurse was a purple elephant as long as he could
deliver the baby.

K