Feminism and Nursing

• Published in: NWSA journal Vol. 3; no. 1; pp. 53 - 69
• Main Author: Hoffmann, Frances L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Norwood, N.J Ablex Publishing Corporation 01-01-1991; Ablex Pub. Corp
• Subjects: Collective bargaining; Feminism; Folk medicine; Gender discrimination; Health care industry; Men; Nurses; Nursing education; Womens health; Workplaces
• ISSN: 1040-0656; 1527-1889

Feminism & nursing have had an uneasy relationship in nursing's quest for identity. Early stages of contemporary feminist scholarship critiqued traditional female roles & encouraged women's intergration into traditionally male preserves, both of which contributed to the ambivalence with which many nurses viewed feminism. Despite this legacy, feminist approaches in nursing have emerged whose theoretical orientations mirror variations in feminist theory in general. Feminist social science & feminist nursing scholarship have developed along parallel, but relatively unintegrated paths. Early feminist nursing perspectives were culturally egalitarian & structurally assimilationist. More recently, some contemporary feminist nurses are rethinking equality models in a quest for women-centered health care models. Others are rethinking structural issues, looking to collective bargaining & comparable worth strategies as potentially transformative of nursing's relationship to the health care industry. Core theoretical tensions remain within the feminist nursing literature. The systematic elaboration & synthesis of the insights of cultural & structural feminists from within & outside of nursing is the next necessary stage in feminist nursing scholarship. Modified AA