Where are all the dudes at?

It is no secret that male speech-language pathologists are a rarity. The conspicuous absence of my fellow brethren in our profession is something that has perplexed me ever since I first chose this career path. I certainly didn't expect it to be a male dominated profession, as is sadly and unjustifiably the case in fields like engineering and computer science. Matter of fact, I expected there to be more females than males, as is the case in fields like nursing, education, and psychology. However the true number of SLPs with a Y chromosome is much lower than I ever anticipated: less than 4% with even less males working in school settings.

This topic has already been addressed by several bloggers.The Speech Dudes offer a humorous Top Seven Reasons to Become a Male SLP and The ASHA Leader featured an article a little over a year ago addressing some of the reasons why more men don't choose this profession. Most of the articles I've come across offer 2 types of reasoning on why more men don't chose this profession. The first tends to deal with concerns about salary and career advancement. However, I don't fully buy this. While money is certainly a factor, the SLP median salary of around $69,000 a year is not, in my opinion, low. Furthermore, the median salary jumps up to around $90,000 a year in skilled nursing facilities and supervisory positions. The potential to earn a decent living is there.There are plenty of stereotypically male careers that have a much lower earning potential. The second type of reasoning for the absence of men in our profession usually revolves around the idea that men are somehow averse to female dominated professions. Again, I would point out that other "traditionally female" professions like education and nursing have a much larger share of men, even if they still are a minority. While I believe that both of these reasons are certainly a factor, I think they are missing a key point. The speech-language pathology profession has a PR problem.

I don't think that many people (much less college aged guys who might otherwise excel in the profession) are aware of the breadth and depth of skills that an SLP has and the types of services that we provide.  Most lay people I talk to are under the impression that an SLP works mainly with toddlers and young children with articulation disorders. I don't want to diminish the impact that untreated speech sound disorders can have. However, this should not be the public's prototypical image of an SLP. It is a small part of our skill set. I believe that if more college aged guys were first exposed to the profession in the context of its relation to neuroscience, medicine, and psychology, we would begin to see more guys in the field. If the general public saw the quintessential clinician as the person that addresses issues like aphasia and the effects of brain injury on communication (as opposed to a sub-specialty of early childhood education), more men who might be considering another related profession like PT, OT, neuropsychology, or even school psychology, would not be so quick to dismiss SLP as a viable career choice. Also, I believe that we would eventually see more men working in school settings as well. Once in the field and aware of how neuroscience and cognitive psychology play into language and learning, more guys would realize that working with children in a school setting is not a trivial and easy job. Additionally, once the public realized what an SLP does and is capable of doing, SLPs already working in school settings would start getting more of the respect that they deserve.