HIST 393 Chapter Notes - Chapter reading: Crimean War
22 Sep 2019
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Nursing undertaken by women placed them in an active and immediate relationship with the government and union officials. It reminded nurses they were part of a larger hierarchy that privileged male authority and leadership and reinforced cultural lessons about subservience to men. Northern women began considering and pursuing the possibility o joining the union struggle as nurses. The new york herald reported that it received numerous communications from ladies who wanted to help the suffering soldiers. By the fall of 1861 and no sign to the end of war, thousands began to consider the path of nursing. Women working as nurses did not win universal support and approval among northerners. The field was not a well established as a profession and was not deemed suitable for most women. People thought that wartime nursing was dangerous due to contact with men and unclean male bodies, which many people believed would be morally compromising. Many drew on the model established by florence.
