Braving Disease and Death: The Contribution of Nursing to the Feminisation of the British Empire, 1896-1948
Date: 22 October 2012 Braving Disease and Death: The Contribution of Nursing to the Feminisation of the British Empire, 1896-1948 by Professor Anne Marie Rafferty (Dean & Chair of Nursing Policy, King's College London) Abstract: The findings presented here form part of a collaborative project within the Centre for Humanities and Healthcare at King’s College, London with Drs Rosemary Wall and Jessica Howell and Anna Snaith. As we shall demonstrate the heroic qualities valorised by the Association in its recruitment rhetoric sometimes clashed with the reality of colonial life in the field. We argue that the figure of the nurse, as a working woman occupied an ambiguous and ambivalent position of ‘in-betweeness’ within the colonial hierarchy but that it was this very ‘in-betweeness’ which enabled the colonial nurse to contribute to the feminisation of empire in multiple ways. Specifically, we argue that nursing contributed to the feminisation of empire; first as symbolic of the benign face of colonial rule; second as romantic figures furnishing would-be wives for colonial officials and finally as conduits into local populations by winning the confidence of women and children. We conclude that the figure of the nurse provides a unique and neglected indexical resource through which to analyse the role that gender plays in global history more generally. All are welcome. The event is co-organised by the Department of History at the University of Hong Kong. For further enquiries, please contact us. |
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