Simone de Beauvoir once wrote: "One is not born, but becomes a woman." Nurses may paraphrase that by saying, "One is not born a nurse, but becomes one." This is in the sense that nursing has taken on far greater responsibility and depth as modern medicine expands its horizons and as people live longer, if not always healthier lives. One major problem with even a brief overview of nursing and its professional status is that nursing is often seen as a woman's field. Florence Nightingale, Clara Barton, even M*A*S*H's Hot Lips Houlihan are symbols of women fighting in a man's world- all too often in wartime or crisis. Now, with the advent of the feminist movement, the point of view is not so much that Nursing offers great opportunities for women, but that there is a need to fight for equality- in pay as well as in status. To bring some sense into today's nursing profession, one must look into two different and differing philosophies- that of feminism, and that of logical positivism. We will focus, primarily on the status and respect of the nurse in a medical environment and the knowledge required.
"The term was first used by Alexandre Dumas the younger in 1872, in a pamphlet, L'Homme-Femme , to designate the emerging movement for women's rights" (Grendon, 1956 p. 107). Actually, the feminist movement in modern times came out of the family room, so to speak, after the publication of john Stuart Mill's Subjection of Women in 1869. "This book became the Bible of Feminism in every Western country, including the U.S" (Grendon 1956 p.111). The idea was that equality for women should be considered a moral problem, not a political or sexual or social one. Much as Betty Friedan's trail-blazing book "The Feminine Mystique attempted to eliminate "passives," from today's woman, criticism aimed at her indicates that she has overlooked minority women- and, many of them are today's nurses.
Gerda Lerner, a union activist, who was present...