She grew up in a wealthy family in an era when young women were to grow up to be proper homemakers, respectable society members, and civilized, obedient wives to their husbands. During this time women in the “nursing profession”, or rather those who looked after the ill and destitute in hospitals, were considered low class and “little less than prostitutes” (Bloy, 2010). Nightingale’s interests in nursing began to manifest when she was 16 after she “experienced a ‘calling’ from God to serve humankind”, and although she had similar impressions in the following years and identified her desire to be a nurse at age 24, she was not able to break away from her family’s disapproval to train in nursing until age 31 (Fitzpatrick & Whall, 2005, p. 22). A couple of years after Nightingale completed a period of training to be a sick nursing in Germany, the Crimean War broke out and Nightingale, along with 38 other nurses, traveled to Scutari to offer their services in the military hospitals (Fitzpatrick & Whall, 2005). It was here where
I wrote this book after reflecting on my professional and personal experiences and my lifelong commitment to the nursing profession, in which I wanted to organise and improve the delivery of nursing care. Background I was born in Florence, Italy on May 12, 1820, and named after the city, hence my name Florence Nightingale. I grew up in England, and my parents were wealthy and well educated; we had several residences. I was educated by my father, who studied at Cambridge University, and spoke seven languages. I also studied mathematics, philosophy, religion, and statistics and became the first female member of the Royal Statistical Society.
Now that’s growing up without a childhood. Jane Smiley seems like a great parent who cares about her children but to allow her daughters to put on makeup even entering their teenage years just isn’t right. Her girls where prematurely growing up, where behaving beyond their age, and with their only priority being beautiful at all times it seem to help them in the long run. As they burned off the “Barbie stage” and grew into more important things down their lives. Like for example Smiley talks about her older daughter, “Now she is planning to graduate school and law school and become an expert on woman’s health issues, perhaps adolescent health issues like anorexia and bulimia” (377).
He warns women against vocations of preaching or politics, explaining that they can influence public opinion in their homes and communities.” They were strictly housewives and were destined to raise children. As the Industrial Revolution began, the women became more active in the labor force. The Industrial Revolution seemed to be a turning point for many women. Due to the Civil War and the start of the Industrial Revolution, women became involved in more labor-intensive jobs. Although the Industrial Revolution started before the war, with men leaving to fight for the Confederacy or the Union, women needed to start taking the places of men.
A large majority of these women could not read nor write. Cushing (1992, pg 72-95). Most common nursing practice would take place in people’s homes, in back yard butcher shops or convents were the nuns would attend to the sick; these acts of care were often performed without a doctor presence. When nurses did work alongside doctors in these early years there role was often just to observe and take on minimal task. At no time would nurse’s act on their own instincts or commands they were there to do as they were told.
The Woman Who Raised a Nation In the book Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation, Cokie Roberts gives voice to the unsung female heroes who helped shape the foundation of the United States. The women she wrote about faced enormous challenges yet believed in the possibility of a radical concept called democracy. They gave a great deal of themselves during the building of this nation, perhaps none more so than George Washington’s wife Martha. One of Martha’s many contributions to the birth of this nation was the support she gave to military troops in order to boost morale. Early on in her marriage to George, Martha got down in the trenches and joined him at army camp which started “a pattern that was to last throughout the war” (Roberts 87).
To know the importance behind Kate Chopin’s novel “The Awakening”, one needs to know a little about the times the book was written in. Around the time the novel was published, in 1899, the industrial revolution was just slowing down and woman’s rights movements were just getting started. Women still had little to no rights and were mostly expected to be stay at home mothers. Women who didn’t choose this path were often looked down upon and ridiculed. The main character in “The Awakening” is Edna Pontellier.
They had the perception of nurses that they were bimbos and objects of extracurricular activity. Developing through the years the media have also shaped the stereotype of nurses as the battle-axe or matron figure an overweight, asexual, fearsome female who was of a tyrannical nature (Hall and Ritchie, 2009). They have also presumed that nurses were very bossy, stern and firm in their position, like a matron figure that Hattie Jacques acted in the Carry on Film (Carry on nurse, 1959). It seemed that nurses were more worried about working in a clan and tidy ward than caring for patients and making them feel comfortable or showing empathy towards their
The movie told of a beautiful and mature woman Katherine who taught “History of Art” at Wellesley College which was a conservative women’s school that wasn’t interested in spreading women’s freedom (Newell). Giselle was important character in the movie. She was young, dynamic, and unafraid to fight for a good purpose. She was different from the traditional women because she had an independent attitude towards life, strong heart, and open-minded thoughts to the 1950s American social phenomenon that was being gradually. In the fifteen years of America after World War Ⅱ, to be a “perfect wives” and “five children’s mother” was a women’s dream (Friedan).
According to Dietz and Lehozky (1963), the discipline of nursing slowly evolved from the traditional role of women, humanitarian aims, religious ideals, common sense, trial and error, war, and feminism. To truly appreciate where we are going, it is important to know where we have been. Sullivan (2002) mentioned that in many societies, the provision of nursing care was a role that was assigned to female members. As caretakers of children, family and community, it was natural that women were the nurses, the caregivers, as human society evolved (Sullivan, 2002). Because women traditionally provided nurturance to their own infants, it was assumed these same caring approaches could be extended to sick and injured community members as well.