The labor market in Western societies is sharply segregated by gender. Different occupations are labeled as female or male appropriate. Occupations that have been perceived as non-traditional for men include social work, nursing and primary school teaching.

There is relatively little research on men in non-traditional occupations, on the reasons why they choose to work in a particular field, and on the implications for the men themselves and for the organizations in which they work. The research that has been done indicates that men in female-dominated organizations tend to move faster up the hierarchical ladder than women and accordingly are represented disproportionately for their numbers in senior and administrative positions. However, women often welcome men in non-traditional occupations because they think it will enhance the status of the profession, salaries and prestige. This helps men to adapt to female working cultures (Ott, 1989, Hume et al 1998, Lambert, 1994, Williams, 1992).

However, research has also shown that men in female dominated occupations can have difficulties in their roles and may respond to their roles in similar ways. For example, they tend to choose work roles that support their masculine identity: they are often considered different from other males and sometimes they are stereotyped as gay. In addition men do not seem to participate to the same degree in informal networks at the work organization as do women (Balloch et al 1995; Lambert, 1994; Zuns, 1995; Benediktsson, 1994; Hume et al., 1998;Williams, 1995; Hrafnsdóttir, 2000).

This paper is based on a new study of the working environment of social service managers in Iceland. The study involved the collection of both quantitative and qualitative data and was focused on the question of gender. In the qualitative interviews the experiences of men and attitudes towards men in the social services were examined. The paper will discuss the implications of being a man in a female dominated organizations such as the social services. The results from the study will be compared with results from other research on men who work in social services, nursing, and primary school teaching.

PhD student, University of Kent at Canterbury,

School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research,

Independent scholar at the ReykjavíkAcademy and part-time teacher at the Faculty of Social Science, University of Iceland.