Women As A Female Profession

Changes in the late 1800's resulted in universities admitting women, thus allowing them to explore many more educational opportunities. These factors together provided the impetus for establishment of hospitals and schools to formally train nurses, with many schools opening for the first time in the 1870s. At the same time, though the need for nurses had been established and the importance of their role within the realm of medical care recognized, there was a great deal of opposition to the proposal that nurses should be formally educated. This attitude was epitomized by a well-known article of the time published in 1908, 'The over-trained nurse' in which the author asserted that nursing was not a “profession” but merely an “honorable calling”. Consistent with this notion, public perception viewed nursing as a job that women were generally suited to perform rather than one which required special skill and was even equated with a religious “calling”. This view, influenced by early nursing's relationship with religious orders remained far into the 20th century.(Lasseter, 1999).

During the Victorian times, men were perceived to be better to women when it came to education. Therefore, educating a woman was completely a waste of resources and what men expected from women was to be obedient, humble and generous to men (Carol, 2011). Oakley (1975) highlighted that women did work in jobs associated with supposed female skills for example cleaning. (Up until the 19th century) . Until the mid 19th century nursing was not an activity, which was thought to demand either training or skills as nightingale stated that nursing was left to those were too drunken, (who were drunkards), who had no money for apprenticeship or too dirty (Allen, 2001). Carol (2011) pointed out that respectable woman were not interested in hospital jobs because it was considered as menial jobs and nursing was described as duties of servants.

For many years, both men and women have tried to overcome gender roles in the workplace. Female nurses have traditionally been the majority and because of this, many of the expectations of the nursing profession seem to favor the feminine roles. In the 1850’s, a British woman by the name of Florence Nightingale became the ideal image of the professional nurse when she discovered sanitation issues that brought the mortality rates down from 47.9% to 2.2% for soldiers in barracks during the Crimean War. Upon returning home she discovered she had become arguably the most famous Victorian with the exception of Queen Victoria herself (BBC News, 2006 as cited in Wikipedia). Since that

Nursing is a profession that can be recalled and accounted for since prehistoric times to now it has since come a long way. In fact in earlier times nursing was only a practice reserved for men. The first nursing school was established in India in about 250 B.C., and only men were permitted to attend because men were viewed to be more pure than women, until the 1800’s when nursing became an organized practice. Should one embark on a research about the history of nursing one would gather a lot of information, both interesting and controversial. However our group did in fact embark on a research on the history of nursing or should I say the evolution of nursing. We realized that as time went by the definition of

In Virginia Woolf’s speech “Professions for Women” she uses rhetorical appeal towards women’s abilities to do anything a man can do, she uses an overall good amount of rhetorical devices that help the reader to picture & experience what she’s feeling and wanting us to see.

Nursing has been historically recognized as a women’s job since the era of Nightingale, until now, providing the assumption that

In 1860, Florence Nightingale established modern nursing and ever since then, women have dominated the field. The role of the nurse is typically associated with feminine characteristics. These feminine qualities include being nurturing, caring, and gentle. Ever since practically the dawn of time, men have been characterized as tough, athletic, dominant beings. So when a man enters the field of nursing, he becomes the minority, meaning, he will account for less than half of the social majority. The lack of men in the field of nursing is referred to as occupational segregation by gender. A combination of lasting stereotypes and public beliefs that nursing has remained such a predominantly female career path. While it is great that women are educated and have access to a fulfilling job with a fairly high paygrade, the female dominance has caused men to struggle to receive the education they need and face

During World War II American women entered the work force in unprecedented numbers, as the growth of men enlisting hit a high hurt the economy which left huge gaping holes in our labor force. Between 1940 and 1945, the percentage of females working in our workforce increased dramatically from about its usual 27 percent to nearly 37 percent. By 1945 one out of every four married women worked outside the home. Rosie the Riveter which is the star of the government campaign aimed to recruit women into the workforce for the munitions industry. She became the most iconic image of the working women during the war.

Why is nursing mainly a women's career? Women are seen as caregivers, therefore the role of a nurse is adequate for a woman since she women are supposed to be nurturing and caring. Nursing is often considered “women’s work,” so often times males shy away from the career resulting in a few male nurses and many female nurses. As a result, many of the stereotypes associated with nursing are gender based. An RCN policy adviser and mental health nurse from Nursing Times: Why Are There So Few Men in Nursing, says: “I think public perception is still that it is a female occupation”(Nursing Times). Another common stereotype is that nurses are just “wannabe doctors.” These stereotypes and misconceptions are not only rude, but inaccurate as many nurses

The nursing profession acquired prestige and legitimacy through Florence Nightingale’s reforms in the late 1800s (Mackintosh, 1997.) Nightingale’s reforms however also helped establish nursing as a woman’s occupation as she proclaimed “nurturance, gentleness, empathy compassion, tenderness and unselfishness to be essentially feminine and essentially nurse-like (Mackintosh, 1997). Other factors affected the decline of men participating in nursing but

The number of male Nurses in the United States decreased from 13% in the 1890’s to 1-2% in the 1940’s. Although male Nursing hit its lowest point in the 1940’s, it is now only approaching 10% of all nurses. While men are no longer restricted to mental hospitals, there is still some gender division in nursing. Men nurses are more common in intensive care units (ICU’s), emergency departments and operating rooms, and less common in pediatrics and obstetric nursing. If the shortages in male nurses in the United States is to be successfully addressed, men will need to be recruited into the occupation of nursing.

Helen, I concur with what you have said about Virginia reasoning that women in today’s society face many drawbacks in their daily life and are trying to overcome them. Women today feel the same type of pressure that Virginia and women from the 1930s experienced, but with a more intense approach. Women look upon their idols (actors/actresses, models, singers, dancer, etc.) and attempt to copy them on everything they have or do. This leads to drugs, surgery, anorexia and other health damaging effects. The reason behind this is that a woman’s inner mind full of desires overshadows the mind that thinks logically. As this happens, women choose what they want compared to what they need in order to survive. But, if women

While there are a lot of responsibilities that nurses have to do most of the nurses being female or males do their work good

This clip is from a 1999 episode of the popular show Friends. Unfortunately, it exemplifies an opinion still widely held by many today, that nursing is a career for women rather than men. Our cohort is also a reflection of this image, with only two students of 24 being men. It is easy to see that nursing is a field dominated by women. As we have learned in our module 1 readings, professional nursing has its roots in a time of war, when men were injured during battle and female nurses were the ones to care for them. Perhaps this has contributed to the image of a "feminine nurse" and a strong gender gap within the nursing profession. I am concerned that many still believe nursing is natural for women and unnatural for men, as if men are incapable

There are a number of professions that traditionally have been oriented towards women: teaching, especially younger children; certain carative professions; and, of course, nursing. Of the 2.1 million Registered Nurses in the United States, for instance, less than six per cent are male, and men make up only 13 percent of the new crop of nursing students (Chung, 2001).