When were women allowed to become nurses?

Question

When were women allowed to become nurses?

Answer 1

Women have always nursed the sick on an informal basis.  During the medieval period, both monks and nuns nursed the sick in infirmaries attached to monasteries.  After the Reformation, nursing fell into disrepute in protestant countries, although in Catholic countries it continued to be an occupation followed by nuns (even today, I believe there are still nursing nuns in Catholic hospitals).

Nursing as a profession for women fell into total disrepute in England, it was considered a suitable occupation only for men and very low-class women.  The same thing was the case in the USA.  It was the reforming zeal of Florence Nightingale in the 1850s that transformed nursing once more into a respectable and respected profession.  In America, the Civil War was the time when enormous numbers of women took up nursing.  In America's Women, Gail Collins writes:

'Until midcentury, nursing had been a job for men and lower-class women.  Florence Nightingale made it respectable for ladies.  She was a well-born Englishwoman who became an international heroine in 1855 when she reorganized the nursing care in the Crimean War, reduing the death rate in British field hospitals from 45 to 2 percent.  When the Civil War began, one observer noted  there was "a perfect manial to act Florence Nightingale." At least 3,000 women held paid nursing positions in the nOrth and South, and thousands of others worked as volunteers.  "The war is certainly ours as well as men's" said Kate Cummings of Mobile, Alabama, who became the marion of a large Confederate hospital.

The Nightingale mania struck particularly hard in the nOrth. "Our women appear to have become almost wild on the subject of hospital nursing." said a wartime correspondent for the American Medical Times.  When Elizabeth Blackwell called an emergency meeting at her infirmary to organize nursing aid for the war effort, 4,000 volunteers showed up.  Not everyone was pleased.  A wartime correspondent for the American Medical Times was disturbed by the image of "a delicate refined woman assisting a rough soldier to the close-stool or supplying him with a bedpan." He urged that women restrict themselves to "delicate soothing attentions, which are always so grateful to the sick".  But public opnion once again chose necessity over proper standards of ladylike behaviour.  A Confederate congressional investigation discovered that the mortality rate among soldiers cared for by female nurses was only half of those tended by men.  "I will not agree to limit the class of persons who can affect such  a saving of life as this." said a senator from Louisianna.  Suddenly, people on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line switched from regarding nursing as an inappropriate job for well-bred women to seeing it as one for which they were uniquely qualified.'

Answer 2

In the US, women became nurses in large numbers during the Civil War.  Men were getting called to the battlefield in greater numbers.  Women wanted to get involved, and in some ways almost forced their way into hospitals.  Society had gone from thinking it scandalous for a woman to be around nursing (due to men suffering and in many cases various states of undress)at the beginning of the Civil War to finding it acceptable and honorable for a woman to be a nurse by the end of the Civil War.  Since then, it's become more of a traditionally female job.

Outside the US, I'm not sure to be honest.  Florence Nightengale was a famous nurse from I think the Crimean War, which preceded the US Civil War by a few years, but I don't know if she was one of the first or not.

Answer 3

Ever heard of Florence Nightingale, a pioneer of modern nursing? She was a hero in her own right and a shining example of courage, kindness and caring for all.

Answer 4

Below is a hyperlink which reviews the history of nursing in the United States:

http://www.aahn.org/nhrtoc.html

N.B.: The opinions presented above represent those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Bristol-Myers Squibb or its affiliate companies. None of the presented statement should bre misconstrued as constituting a physician-patient relationship nor an attorney-client relationship.

Moreover, the author wishes to issue his apologies for any offense or lack thereof to any members of the community in advance. Any spelling/syntactical errors are purely the result of human error and I apologize in advance for any offense this may cause the members of this community.

Answer 5

woman never were allowed to be nurses yhey were needed to be nurses.nurses are very special and caring people. i know my wife was a nurse for 40 years i seen first hand the sacrifices she endured to care for sick patients.  like long hours, working weekends and holidays, being called back to work after her shift sometimes doing double shifts. and she did this without complaining. so dont you ever think women were just allowed to be nurses.

Answer 6

When they were not allowed to become doctors -- in the forties and fifties.

Answer 7

Whats up with this ALLOWED c**p, if it wasn't for nurses you wimps would be on your own.

Answer 8

Women have probably been nurses unofficially since wounds have been dressed. Official nursing is just the same thing with professional recognition.

Answer 9

When man first got ill.