Men in Dietetics: A Qualitative Study of Cis-Gender Men's Experiences as Registered Dietitian Nutritionists in the United States.

BACKGROUND

Historically, dietetics has been strongly gendered. Recent data indicates that 94% of practitioners identify as women. The Academy is committed to enhancing diversity and inclusion.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to explore cisgender men's experiences in the dietetics profession in the United States.

DESIGN

As part of a larger study, this was a qualitative analysis of 3 open-ended items from a 60-item survey instrument that was delivered electronically. The survey instrument was expert reviewed. In addition, 9 cognitive interviews and a pilot test were conducted.

PARTICIPANTS

The Commission on Dietetic Registration provided the contact information for all registered dietitian nutritionists who self-identified as male (n = 3697) and a subset of those who did not list a gender in the Commission on Dietetic Registration's records (in total, n = 5003). Of those, 100 were invited to pilot the survey and were excluded from the final analysis. The final survey was distributed to the remaining 4903 people on the contact list. Cisgender men responding to at least 1 open-ended item were included in this analysis (n = 1065).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE

To gain a rich understanding of cisgender men's experience in the dietetics profession through analyzing their open-ended survey responses.

ANALYSES PERFORMED

The Coding Reliability Thematic Analysis method was used to analyze open-ended responses. Two researchers coded 150 responses independently and reached a substantial intercoder agreement (Cohen's κ = .80). One researcher coded the full data set; the second checked the coding. Member checking and a data audit were conducted to increase trustworthiness.

RESULTS

With approximately one-third of the entire population of male registered dietitian nutritionists (n = 1065), the following 3 themes were identified: (1) Being a man in dietetics: Unproblematic with some advantages (84.1%); (2) Dietetics is a gendered field (49.8%); and (3) Perceived gender barriers and isolation (48.4%).

CONCLUSIONS

As part of the profession's commitment to diversity and inclusion, it is important to explore underrepresented groups' experiences. The majority of men have not found it problematic to be men in the dietetics profession; however, there are challenges associated with it being gendered and there are perceived barriers.