Implicancia de las masculinidades en la elección de la carrera de terapia ocupacional en estudiantes hombres

Abstract

Introduction: The choice of the university career is a decision that will determine to a great extent the future trajectory of women and men, the latter being the ones who occasionally can break the hegemonic mandates of masculinity, when entering a feminized discipline, such as Occupational Therapy.  Objective: Describe the reason for the choice of the Occupational Therapy career in male students. Methodology: Qualitative, phenomenological research through semi-structured interviews with 10 male students of the Occupational Therapy career at a Chilean University. The sample size was determined by the saturation of the data and the technique used was the narrative analysis of the content. Results: Occupational Therapy students are characterized by making a break in hegemonic masculinity by choosing a socially feminized profession, opting for one valuation of the other and another, renouncing the prestige and economic success that a masculinized profession could have given them. Conclusions: Male Occupational Therapy students move away from the hegemonic masculinity model, by focusing on the other, generating a deconstruction that provides significant satisfaction with the career, building a trajectory strongly influenced by the inclusion of their female peers, which will allow them gradually forge a more egalitarian and inclusive gender identity.