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Experiences of the female nursing higher education workforce: a systematic integrative review

20 March 2025
Volume 34 · Issue 6

Abstract

Background:

Although nursing and midwifery are female-dominated professions, both in clinical practice and in higher education, men are disproportionately represented in leadership and senior positions. The objectives of this review are to explore the lived experiences of the female nursing and midwifery higher education workforce to better understand barriers to progression.

Methods:

A systematic search of nine databases from both health and education arenas identified relevant literature; this was appraised and thematically analysed using a structured approach.

Findings:

Only seven articles were retrieved, revealing female nursing academics' experiences relating to juggling multiple roles, the competitive culture of academia, lived experiences of benevolent sexism, and the importance of early career mentoring and female role models. The importance of the female voice and role models for students and the influence of this on the future workforce was also highlighted.

Conclusion:

There is limited literature available examining women's experiences as nursing educators (and none could be retrieved that related to midwifery). Findings corroborate female experiences from other industry sectors, particularly in relation to juggling roles and caring responsibilities impeding career progression. Benevolent sexism arose as a significant barrier to leadership within nursing education as the caring role is perceived as highly feminised.

Nursing and midwifery professions are female in the majority, with only 11% of Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) registrants identifying as male (NMC, 2024). However, this is not mirrored across higher education (HE) generally, where men are proportionally better represented. The UK Council of Deans of Health's (CODH) analysis of the academic workforce for nursing, midwifery and allied health disciplines notes that 72.3% of staff identify as female (CODH, 2020). This is a better reflection of the gender split within clinical nursing and midwifery practice, although it does not fully represent the gender seniority inequalities therein.

The NHS is a female-dominated organisation, yet men consistently dominate senior board-level positions (NHS Confederation, 2019). Similarly, although there are more females among the nursing and midwifery HE workforce in general, men are disproportionately represented in senior and specialist academic and/or research roles (Evans, 2004; Cleary et al, 2019). They are also better represented in nursing and midwifery academia generally in comparison with caring for patients on the clinical front lines – 27.7% of academics in healthcare subjects are male compared with only 11% of those in clinical nursing and midwifery roles (CODH, 2020).

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