“At the front of the sexes”: the march of Brazilian nurses to gain military service
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5216/ree.v15i3.17446Keywords:
Nursing, History of Nursing, Military NursingAbstract
ABSTRACT
The objective of this historical-social study was to analyze the initiatives of officially incorporating Brazilian nurses in the military field during the first half of the 20th century, and discuss on the implications of incorporating Brazilian nurses in Military Service during World War II. The primary sources were written and iconographic documents. Data were classified, contextualized and analyzed by the historical method and treated under the light of the Social World Theory by Pierre Bourdieu and History of Women by Michelle Perrot. Results showed that the initiatives to make an official incorporation of Brazilian nurses in militarized institutions in Brazil were defined by the symbolic effects of masculine domination, which dictated the limits and possibilities of those nurses in occupying positions of power and prominence in the Brazilian Army at the time. It was a history of battles that (re)defined sexual division of labor in the military field.
Descriptors: Nursing; History of Nursing; Military Nursing.