[Gender category in nursing]

The aim of this study was to analyze the gender categories, in the gender studies in Brasilian Nursing. Using an exploratory approach, we analyze the articles in this area, published en ten Brasilian journals, from 1955 through 1997/1. Based on the analysis of the texts, the main categories to what the attention of the authors converged, were: gender and, historical and social determinants in the nursing profession development, gender and work, gender and health, gender and education, gender and feminism. Other important perspectives, less emphasized but emerging in the nursing literature, were: gender and caring, gender and family, gender and violence.