[Deconstructing assumptions: the history of care in light of perceptions of the nursing profession]

The nursing profession continues to be shaped by persistent stereotypes: that it is historically a female-dominated field, that it has exclusively religious origins, that it is subordinate to medicine, and that it lacks its own body of knowledge. This article aims to demonstrate that these apparent truths do not hold up to historical analysis. Drawing on recent work in the history of care, as well as research on antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the nineteenth century, it establishes that these perceptions are the product of discontinuous historiographical constructions and processes of social normalization. The history of nurses, when approached from the perspective of care practices themselves, thus serves as a powerful tool for deconstructing contemporary stereotypes.