National Party tweet offends doctors and nurses

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National Party tweet offends nurses

3News NZ

A National Party graphic is causing controversy

A National Party graphic is causing controversy

Medical professionals have taken offence at a graphic on the National Party website which suggests all doctors are men and all nurses, women.

The fuss was kicked off by a tweet from the Prime Minister himself, linking to the party's website boasts about how much the Government had achieved in the health sector.

“Clearly on ‘Planet Key’ only men can be doctors,” says Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei. “This is the National Party's vision for New Zealand's women and their daughters - that if you want to go into the caring profession you can only be nurses.”

The Green Party says John Key should apologise to the medical community for the tweet that trumpets 1000 new doctors and twice as many nurses under the National Government, with illustrations.

“It is a worry, I guess, to see a stereotype which I would have thought is really consigned to comic books still being trotted out from the Prime Minister,” says New Zealand Nurses’ Union chief executive Geoff Annals.

It’s comical because in New Zealand 40 percent of registered doctors are female, and about 7 percent of nurses are male.

Ian Powell, of the Salaried Medical Specialists’ Association, says illustrations aside, the National Party figures are inaccurate - and that the doctor figure should be halved.

“They've misunderstood the data and we've advised them, but they continue to repeat this misleading mantra,” he says.

The Prime Minister refused to talk to 3 News about the tweet. In fact, a spokeswoman laughed it off, saying she doubted he was even aware of it and admitting that it would be very unusual for him to know what was being tweeted by staff on his behalf.

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Comments

20/12/2012 7:55:37 p.m.

Trish Carter wrote:

I am more offended by Metiria Turei's statement "that if you want to go into the caring profession you can only be nurses", than I am by the graphic of doctors being represented by a male avatar and nurses a female one. Is she implying that nurses have lesser value than doctors? That nurses are somehow second rate? There is no such thing as ONLY a nurse.

20/12/2012 1:44:26 p.m.

alison wrote:

More of the same from National. Dodgy numbers. I guess when they put up the petrol tax to balance the books they took into account the added costs to consumers on food etc and added in the amount of lost tax on wages as most caregivers will not be able to continue from the financial strain, hence we will see a spike in resthome care and costs for the elderly. Of course National wouldnt know. They are too busy doing interviews and promotions of themselves to understand such things.As the spokesman for keys says "He is unaware of these things".

19/12/2012 5:38:36 p.m.

pondering wrote:

I am with Popping . It is a nurse having heart pain over pay and work condition inequality and disparity. Cant say I blame her.

19/12/2012 2:29:10 p.m.

poppingcat wrote:

The point of an infographic isn't just to decorate the text, it's to add to the information. It's a way to help us understand the information we've been given, like a children's book does I suppose. So what information do the Dr/Nurse icons add to this infographic? If I were looking at this without the text I wouldn't see Dr. and Nurse, I would see Paramedic and Patient to be honest. The woman looks like she has heart pain, but that's another design flaw so nevermind that. My point is that using a male icon for the Dr. and a female icon for the Nurse implies that these factors are important or at least somehow related to the information. But the fact that they're using this stereotype to get across the information that "This is what a Doctor is and this is what a Nurse is" makes it sexist. The designer has almost entirely relied on our view of gender-roles to show the difference between Doctors and Nurses. That may be the fault of everyone for thinking that way but most of us realise it, and correct it. The designer did not (which was basically their job as a designer, to consider the imagery/icons they're using). And maybe you could say it's accurate after hearing the statistics the Greens presented, but was it necessary to add that information in? An illustrated piece of statistics should be all about presenting information, so why did they not at all consider what information the Male and Female icons were presenting? Pretty lazy design, and lazy reviewing. The fact that it specifies what gender belongs to what job is what makes it sexist.

19/12/2012 10:36:49 a.m.

wondering wrote:

I am wondering if the government is trying to imply male nurses all wear dresses. I am fairly sure not all of the male nurses wear dresses. I haven't seen any nurses in dresses for many years. They all wear unisex pants and smock

19/12/2012 9:52:00 a.m.

M Head wrote:

The 'key' thing is the inaccuracy of the figures which the govt could not justify when it came up with the same stats a couple of years ago. They weren't believeable then and they aren't believeable now.

19/12/2012 8:59:02 a.m.

Graham wrote:

"It’s comical because in New Zealand 40 percent of registered doctors are female, and about 7 percent of nurses are male." Doesn't that mean that the majority of Doctors (60%)are male and 93% of nurses are female. Then surely a correct depiction in a graphic should reflect this case. Any other depiction would be misleading.The Greens obviously don't understand the concept of a majority which is why they will never get a majority in parliament. Why anyone would vote for these idiots is beyond me!

19/12/2012 7:07:00 a.m.

Steve wrote:

Can you still count them when they're working in Australia????

19/12/2012 12:14:55 a.m.

Kathy wrote:

All the usual suspect criminals defending brain dotgone. The same people who defend Keys illegal destruction of the GCSB recording of his February meeting.

18/12/2012 11:00:55 p.m.

ANNOYED wrote:

The Green Party need to get a life - I'm a young professional female and I sure don't feel marginalised by these pictures - gee, if that's all the PM has done wrong he must be doing a pretty good job. Somebody needs to get into the festive spirit and stop being so petty. This is not the way to gain votes Green Party.