The gender gap in the nursing workforce has long been a focus for hospital recruiters, and shifting labor market forces may now be helping close it as well.
As male-dominated fields such as manufacturing and software engineering see diminishing job opportunities, nursing offers steadier ground, NPR reported July 21, with consistent demand, structured training pathways and an income above national averages.
Recent college graduates are entering one of the most challenging entry-level job markets in years, as AI-related layoffs mount across industries and raise concerns the technology could reshape early-career roles.
Healthcare has remained largely insulated from those losses. Researchers at GovAI have found patient care roles — including registered nurses, physician assistants and surgical technologists — carry low vulnerability to AI-driven job cuts, while administrative roles carry the highest.
That insulation, paired with pay, is part of the pull. The median annual income for registered nurses is nearly double that of all occupations, at $93,600 compared to $49,500, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It rises to $132,050 for nurse practitioners, nurse midwives and nurse anesthetists.
Men remain a small share of that workforce, though the trend has been uneven. The share of men in the U.S. registered nursing workforce rose from 8% in 2015 to 11.2% in 2022 before dropping to 10.4% in 2024, according to the AACN’s Nursing Workforce Fact Sheet, updated in May.
Health system leaders say the gap is starting to close as men from other traditionally male career pipelines look for an entry point. Margie Zyble, CHRO of Cincinnati-based UC Health, told Becker’s in June that men gravitate toward specialties such as the ED, ICU and procedural areas, and that framing recruitment around high-skill, fast-paced work — including the system’s level 1 trauma center — has helped attract them. Marissa Jamarik, DNP, RN, vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer at Beaufort (S.C.) Memorial, said her hospital has focused on helping military corpsmen and medics transition into healthcare roles, along with EMS and fire personnel who already rotate through hospital departments for training.
The technology increasingly built into nursing is also proving to be a draw, particularly for men coming from mechanical or technical backgrounds. Robots are now common in lung and heart surgery, said Steven Parsons, MSN, RN, a cardiovascular operating room nurse and adjunct instructor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, whose robotics team was majority male.
“You’ve got guys that are kind of interested in that mechanical stuff,” he told NPR.
Taken together, the same forces reshaping the broader labor market — automation, AI and the erosion of some traditional male-dominated career paths — are what health system leaders are now trying to turn into a recruiting advantage, positioning nursing as both a stable job and a technical, well-paying one.
At the Becker's 11th Annual IT + Revenue Cycle Conference: The Future of AI & Digital Health, taking place September 14–17 in Chicago, healthcare executives and digital leaders from across the country will come together to explore how AI, interoperability, cybersecurity, and revenue cycle innovation are transforming care delivery, strengthening financial performance, and driving the next era of digital health. Apply for complimentary registration now.