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

Lookup NU author(s): Yier Xu

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Abstract

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.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Xu Y

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Twentieth-Century China

Year: 2025

Volume: 50

Issue: 1

Pages: 56-73

Print publication date: 30/01/2025

Online publication date: 30/01/2025

Acceptance date: 03/01/2024

Date deposited: 16/12/2024

ISSN (print): 1521-5385

ISSN (electronic): 1940-5065

Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press

URL: https://doi.org/10.1353/tcc.2025.a950427

DOI: 10.1353/tcc.2025.a950427

ePrints DOI: 10.57711/shk4-0p60

Data Access Statement: This study used third-party data made available under a licence that the author does not have permission to share. Requests to access the data should be directed to the Cadbury Research Library at the University of Birmingham, the Provincial Archive of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the Provincial Library of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and https://www.cnbksy.com/v1/home.

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