WI: The 'lady with the lamp' was an equal oppoertunities reformer ?

What if Florence Nightingale had promoted Nursing as a suitable career for both Men and Women following her exploits in Scutari - if nothing as a nod to the Knights Hospitallers of the Crusades period ...

how would Nursing be different as a profession if the M:F ratio for RNs was closer to parity than the current outnumbering of men in Nursing by up to 10:1 ?
 
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WHat if Florence Nightinggale had promoted Nursing as a suitable career for both Men and women following her exploits in Scutari - if nothing as a nod to the Knights Hospitallers of the Crusades period ...

how would Nursing be different as a profession if the M:F ratio for RNs was closer to parity than the current outnumbering of men in Nursing by up to 10:1 ?
At the time, nursing (especially in the field) was ad hoc work by usually camp followers (ranging from common law wives to out right prostitutes). In cities, it was often nuns (hence 'nursing sister'). Florence Nightingale turned this unrespected job into something that respectable middleclass women could do - without taking the veil.

It was enough of a leap to get it raised that high. If she DID manage to raise its reputation even further, so it became a respectablr job for men, why then men would take it over and displace the women. Imo.

Gender equality in respectable professions just isnt a 19th century possibility, I am rather afraid.
 
Also a lot of military nursing WAS done by men. If there weren't enough prostitutes or nuns to do so some private was made into a nurse.
 
Also a lot of military nursing WAS done by men. If there weren't enough prostitutes or nuns to do so some private was made into a nurse.


from 1660 the British Army had Surgeon's assistants

from 1855 the British Army had the Medical Staff Corps

which by 1898 had become the RAMC and integrated MOs as full officers as well as having ORs and what we now call Medical Support Officers

by that time there was also the Royal Navay Sick Berth Reserve that consisted mainly of SJAB members who had recieved additional training in 'Nursing' on top of their first aid/ ambulance training
 
In the latter half of the 19th century major European militaries and the US military had "medical corps" enlisted men of one stripe or another who provided first aid on the field, assisted with medical clerical/supply duties, pharmacy dispensing, and bedside care in post hospitals. This was a more formalized system than the earlier system where there were limited numbers of "medical enlisted" and much of the transportation of the wounded and "nursing" care was done by line soldiers (and/or bandsmen) detailed to this duty - and almost universally accounts state that the line soldiers detailed for medical work were usually wither consider the "losers" by their company officers or those who were physically unfit for line service (recovering wounded for example).

Having said that, one reason men were used for bedside care in most militaries in peacetime (and initially in war) was a reluctance to have soldiers "coddled" by women as well as keeping women away from the ugliness of military life even in peacetime. Formal and permanent female nursing establishments in militaries did not arrive until the end of the 19th/beginning of the 20th centuries.

A BIG roadblock against male nurses becoming "common" in the mid-19th century is the fact that "medical care" was seen as a very female occupation. Even though women only began to be allowed in to medical schools in the middle third of the 19th century, physicians (especially in the military) were seen as operating in a "feminine" sphere since most health care was provided in the home under the care of women (wife/mother/sister). Lots of other reasons why nursing and men don't belong in the same sentence in the time of Florence Nightingale. Lots of references in the medical history literature discuss this issue.
 
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