Male nurses in a psychiatric hospital were compared and contrasted to their female colleagues with respect to their conceptions of their intra-hospital status and their place in the general stratification system outside the hospital. Within the hospital, the male nurses differed from the females in their views of the other occupational groups with whom nurses are in contact. The men's involvement in an occupation usually reserved for women also affected their view of the general stratification system, especially in terms of a relatively low estimate of their own self-esteem.