One day I was telling a Taiwanese friend a story about a nurse in America. When I said "he...." my friend started laughing cause she thought i made a mistake. Even when I clarified that I was talking about a man, she still thought I was joking around. In her mind she just couldn't fathom such thing as a male nurse.
This got me thinking about how in Taiwan there really are jobs that are considered for men or women only. In the case of women one factor is some perceived level of safety. It is viewed unsafe for a woman to be a plumber or a taxi driver, or any job where you have to be alone with somebody in a closed space. While for men, society's judgement plays a large part, as it would be "shameful" for a man to do a job that is stereotypically a "woman's job."
It's not all bad though. If you a Taiwanese male and you want to be a nurse, your school life is quite good. There are many nursing schools around the country and they are quite controlling. The female students must live in the dorms and they are run more like a prison than a school dorm. Again all in some perceived way of being "safe."
However if you a male student in nursing school you have a grand life. Since there is no male's dorm, the male students are allowed to live in the luxurious teachers' dorms. They are also entitled to all the freedoms and privileges that the teachers get.
Then again it doesn't last long as once they graduate and become a nurse they will be shunned by society, and their parents afraid to even speak of them. So perhaps in this one case perhaps what they say is true, college is the best time of their lives.
