This new interpretation of the history of nursing in the United
States captures the many ways women reframed the most traditional
of all gender expectations--that of caring for the sick--to create
new possibilities for themselves, to renegotiate the terms of some
of their life experiences, and to reshape their own sense of worth
and power.
For much of modern U.S. history, nursing was informal, often
uncompensated, and almost wholly the province of female family and
community members. This began to change at the end of the
nineteenth century when the prospect of formal training opened for
women doors that had been previously closed. Nurses became
respected professionals, and becoming a formally trained nurse
granted women a range of new social choices and opportunities that
eventually translated into economic mobility and stability.
Patricia D'Antonio looks closely at this history--using a new
analytic framework and a rich trove of archival sources--and finds
complex, multiple meanings in the individual choices of women who
elected a nursing career. New relationships and social and
professional options empowered nurses in constructing consequential
lives, supporting their families, and participating both in their
communities and in the health care system.
Narrating the experiences of nurses, D'Antonio captures the
possibilities, power, and problems inherent in the different ways
women defined their work and lived their lives. Scholars in the
history of medicine, nursing, and public policy, those interested
in the intersections of identity, work, gender, education, and
race, and nurses will find this a provocative book.
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