Are Male Ultrasonographers Discriminated Against?
This blog is now focused on laboratory specialties. This article is here for your information only, as jobs are no longer provided for any radiation technician specialties.
Being a male ultrasonographer can make it tough to find a job. Many facilities will only hire a female . There are several reasons why this is so.
There are many facilities that require a chaperon to be present when a male ultrasonographer performs an sonogram on a woman. Facilities probably choose to make this a policy to avoid lawsuits. However, a female ultrasonographer is usually not required to have a chaperon present during a sonogram. This means that most facilities who choose to hire a male ultrasonographer would then have to pay a chaperon to be present during every sonogram or other sensitive exam. Also, it is common for patients to only allow female ultrasonographer to scan them.
These reasons make it easy to see why hospitals would not want to hire a male ultrasonographer. But, is this illegal? The Civil Rights Act of 1964 does state that “no employer may discriminate on the basis of race, sex, national origin and religion”. However, it goes on to provide employers leeway: “where religion, sex, or national origin is a bona fide occupational qualification reasonably necessary to the normal operation of that particular business of enterprise”.
While male ultrasonographers are discriminated against, it is done legally, and there isn’t anything right now that they can do about it. This is sad, because there are some male ultrasonographers who are very good at what they do that do not get the opportunities that a female would. On the other hand, male ultrasonographers choose their professions knowing that this discrimination exists.
Learn about hiring an ultrasonographer.
Source:
- Stanislaw, Stacy (2007, December 24) Sex in Sonography: Is There a Double Standard? Advance for Imaging and Radiation Thereapy Professionals, 18
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