National Women’s History Month–What’s Nursing Got to Do With It?
By Karen Roush, MS, RN, FNP-C, AJN clinical managing editor
Back in the late 60s, when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up, one particular piece of advice kept popping up: “Become a nurse. That way, if anything happens to your husband, you’ll be able to get a job and support your family.”
This month we celebrate National Women’s History Month. The theme is Women’s Education–Women’s Empowerment. I think back to that advice and how it captures the journeys of both nursing and women over the last 45 years.
That one piece of advice reflected so many beliefs of the time. The husband (and there should be a husband for any self-respecting woman) is the breadwinner. A woman doesn’t really want to work and shouldn’t work; her role is to take care of husband and home. She doesn’t need the fulfillment of a career—only the ability to pay the bills if she suddenly finds herself alone.
Nursing was the safety net job. Not something to pursue for its own sake—for the intellectual, emotional, and financial rewards it could offer. Women who did pursue it found themselves earning their own paycheck—but still subjugated, the handmaiden to the physician.
Thankfully, that has changed. Women pursue all kinds of careers and are surpassing men in numbers […]
