A Modern Occupation for Women: Feminization and the Professionalization of Nursing in 1930s' China

When nursing was first introduced in China in the late 1800s, it was an occupation to which men and women had equal access. But by the mid 1930s, the ratio between female and male nurses in China was more than two to one. The feminization of nursing during the Republican era was caused by the departure of male nurses who left in pursuit of better wages and was animated by competing discourses centered around the tropes of the Modern Girl and the New Woman. Civilian hospitals facilitated the feminization of nursing by utilizing these gender tropes to their advantage. They justified hiring more women on the grounds that a nurse's duties resembled a woman's domestic responsibilities. The hospitals objectified their nursing staff's femininity to attract patients. And they highlighted the nurses' image as modern women to imply the modernity of their hospital. When patients criticized the attributes of the Modern Girl assumed by nurses, female nurses asserted their authority over knowledge, gender roles and merit to defend themselves and promote their professional image. These efforts by female nurses to professionalize their work played a key role in the ultimate success of the feminization of nursing.