Woman nurses/care workers Race and Ethnicity - Essay Example

? The profession of nursing and how gender and ethni relate to the social roles and definitions that have emerged within this choice of career Contents Introduction 3 Racism, Feminism and Other 4 Racism 4 Female Oppression 6 Nursing 8 Feminism and Nursing 8 Ethnicity and Nursing 10 Conclusion 11 Bibliography 12 The profession of nursing and how gender and ethnicity relate to the social roles and definitions that have emerged within this choice of career Introduction The issue of race and gender emerges as a discussion of oppression in which the oppression of gender is the beginning of the experience of the individual with the continuation of oppression laying within the boundaries of ethnicity. Where women once believed in a unity of oppression, a discourse on the effect of ethnicity on oppressive paradigms has created a new dimension of how to think on the issue. According to Afshar and Maynard (2003: 1) “During the past decade, feminism and women’s studies have been forced to acknowledge the diversities of women’s experiences, as well as the patriarchal experiences that they share”. The study of female experiences has been complicated as the realization has emerged that women of different ethnicities do not share the same experiences, but that their existence within the world has been shadowed by the racism that has existed across ethnic boundaries. Understanding the concept of ‘other’ as it is defined through both gender and ethnicity extends into the way in which specific experiences have occurred as the development of occupation has taken place. The concept of the nursing profession is defined by its development through female oriented public roles. The nurse is one of a few professions that has emerged as a female designated public role, but the development of the profession in Western societies was defined by ethnic boundaries that had to be crossed by women of other ethnic origins outside of the ‘white’ female in order to equalize the field. This means the role of nurse is complicated by both gender boundaries and ethnic boundaries across which women have had to fight in order to gain position and respect. The following paper will discuss the idea of ‘otherness’ as it relates both ethnicity and gender. Once the concept of ‘otherness’ has been discussed, the concept that has developed of gender oriented position within the public space and how that has been integrated across ethnic lines through the profession of nursing will be examined. The profession of nursing provides a backdrop for the discussion gender and ethnicity as the roles of the female in the public space is contrasted with the emergence of equal rights of opportunity that have been oppressed through the ‘otherness of ethnicity. Racism, Feminism and Other Racism The question of racism begins through understanding dynamics of power and ends with a discussion of ‘otherness’. What lies in between is a long discussion that can be summed up through an examination of cultural fears of domination and subjugation. Rattansi (2007) discusses the existence of a complex set of meanings for racism discovered through multidimensional cultural precepts that in the end are meant to preserve the cultural integrity of a people. Racism has an authenticity from a historic perspective as one culture desires to protect themselves from domination from an unknown culture that might prove to be a threat. An enlightened culture will have discovered that other cultures are not a direct threat merely for their differences, but a deep seated fear of a threat to the existence of culture remains to perpetuate the divisions that come between people who look and behave differently. Rattansi (2007: 3) states that “The underlying logic of this sort of viewpoint is that racism is simply part of a continuum that includes, at one end, a perfectly understandable and benign collective identification that are essential for the survival of all cultural groups”. Racism stems out of a need to protect one’s own culture and to promote survival. Racisim is often defined as being the prerogative of the dominant culture. Rattansi (2007) goes on to suggest that the question about racism becomes dominated by a desire to differentiate between racism and ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism is the belief in maintaining the integrity of a culture by making it exclusive, where racism is often defined by the combination of power and prejudice which creates an oppressive state. The example that is most predominate is the power and prejudice of white society. Racism is often defined as only being a one-sided capability in which the dominant society holds the power over minority cultures in which oppressive states effects the existence. Under this framework of definitions, black society cannot hold racists views as white society has the dominating position in Western cultures. In studying any sense of other it is crucial to understand that as long as the researcher is on the outside of the ‘other’ status, they will never have a full understanding of what it means to be other (Hesse-Biber and Leavy 2007). What it means to be ‘other’ is essentially the experience of having some element of existence that is outside of the cultural norms of the greater society in which one finds themselves interacting. Men will never fully understand what it is to be oppressed within a female body just as someone who is Caucasian will never feel the oppression of being inside of a black body. In studying ‘otherness’, the researcher can assert a great number of beliefs, but will never fully embody the complexity of the experience of ‘other’. The concept of ‘other’ in bodies that emerge from African ethnicities is a perpetuation of the colonialism that has its roots in a widespread memory of slavery that persists into modern society (Howe 2002). The memory oppression and ownership dissipates through the generations, each emerging group having less culturally passed influences as the memories begin to fade, but with slavery still less than 150 years in the past, the pervasive familial fears, angers, and struggles that have had a continuing influence on individuals lingers in cultural behaviours that subtly continue the imperialistic cultural dynamic. Those subtle, persistent systems of belief, behaviour, and dynamisms of oppression continue to create separations that define the existence of ‘otherness’ as it erects a barrier between cultures. Female Oppression Just as ‘otherness’ as it is expressed through ethnicity is not easily understood, the sense of the ‘other’ as it is expressed through gender is difficult to define from the perspective of the opposing gender. The initial difference between male and female lies in the structures procreative powers. Women who were unable to procreate were not considered of value, as Walters (2005) relates, and in medieval Europe they were locked away in convents because of the financial burden that they created. Women have always been defined by their ability to perpetuate human existence. As women were defined by the domestic sphere and men for the public sphere, women were defined by elements that were outside of their control where men have been defined by the amount of control that they could assert over their world. Ray and Kundu (2004) extends the discussion of the ‘otherness’ of the female gender to explore the nature of the historic position of women as based on the innate drives of the concept of the survival of the fittest. In order to extend the immortality of men into the next generation, the subjugation of women became necessary to preserve the blood lines. Ray and Kundu (2004: 63) state that “the necessity and denial of the female subject oscillates between the other and the same by means of a convenient movement of the binary identifications”. The idea of female is both the same in that it is human but other as it contains roles that men cannot fulfil. The borders that define the female are flexible, which means that they can slide between the domestic and the public sphere with more ease than can men. The need to oppress this ability in order to assert control over the perpetuation of the species and preserve bloodlines set up the patriarchal dominance dynamic. When women entered into the work force, their position in society suddenly shifted from the domestic to the public sphere. Creating a career in the public sphere meant entering into the space that was dominated by men and having to navigate the gender role assumptions and belief systems in order to define what it meant to be a woman in balance with how the experience in the public sphere changed the meaning of being female. Hanson (1992) discusses the issue of the female presence in the imperial colonial situation as she had no recourse for doing anything other than supporting the efforts of her husband. One of the exceptions to this belief system was that women could serve as nurses. The emergence of the position of nurse was subject to the paradigm that female assistance to male doctors was an extension of the marital dynamic. The assistance of males in the work place through female role impositions over the idea of employment became the initial first acceptance of the female role in the work environment. Nursing Feminism and Nursing The word nursing evokes a feeling of nurture, the need for the afflicted to have the influence of a caretaker in order to heal. As women have most often been placed in caretaking roles, the idea of the female gender in this position is not a far step from the domestic sphere in which female roles have more often been assigned. Because the role of the nurse reflected the oppressed position of women within the domestic space, nurses came into conflict with feminists who believed that the nursing profession was an extension of patriarchal control. Activists of the 1970s devalued the position as a continuing representation of female oppression, divorcing themselves from nurses as representative of an oppositional to the cause (Andrist 2006). Andrist (2006) discusses the writing of Nurse Teresa Christy who explored the nature of the role of nurse as during this time period nurses were paid less than orderlys dispite a higher level of required education. Christy called for nurses to join the cause in order to gain greater equality in the work place. Rosalind Gabrielson researched the subordinate role nurses played to doctors, in that they followed the directions of doctors without using their own education. The study that she explored was based on instructions given to give medications that were non-existent to patients. She discovered that 21 out of 22 nurses gave the medication even though it was not a valid treatment and was not a real pharmaceutical (Andrist 2006). The defining rift between feminists and nurses was based upon the belief that nurses were subordinate to males through the patriarchal society, not based upon the dynamics of the workplace. The profession of nurse is a part of the construction of a social identity. Nursing, as a concept, was defined in different time periods. In the late 19th century it was common for the female identity to be intrinsically connected to the role in which she played. Therefore, a woman was a mother, a nurse, a teacher, or a consort. She was objectified through her role and her identity became defined by the role that she played. Her sexuality was defined by the choice of role and rarely was she allowed to become a part of both spheres of society. The role of a woman was objectified to the extent that she was the role rather than a person who had a role (Davies 2006). It was rare for a woman with a career to also be a wife. Once a woman became married, she was often not allowed to have a role in the public sphere. Therefore, marriage was a sacrifice for a woman as she had to choose between marriage and career. According to beliefs put forward by Hubbard and Catt in their work written in 1915, the wife and mother who sought work outside the home was putting the moral future of her children at risk. Hubbard and Catt (1915: 224) state that “feminists consider their course in life for the temporal good of themselves”. Feminists, at that time, were considered those who sought out a life outside of the domestic sphere. While nurses were respected to the degree that they were necessary, they were not respected for their choice and were outside of the public belief systems in how a woman should behave. The nature of the medical profession is still a paternalistic system in which men more often are in the dominant roles with women in the serving roles (Chitty and Black 2007). The nature of the role is often not dissected from the idea of feminized roles as they pertain to service and nurture, the nurse a professionalized version of mother (McLaughlin 2002). Post 1985, however, the importance and role of women in the nursing profession began to expand as the realization that the concept of nurse as professionalized caretaker and substitute mother figure in the medical context began to be replaced with an understanding that a nurse is an educated member of the medical profession allowed for the expansion of the role to positions that include, but are not limited to nurse practitioners which allows for a position with far more autonomy. Ethnicity and Nursing When viewed through the black experience, the emergence of suffrage at the turn of the century was not only fighting the cause of women, but the plight of ethnic divisions that created a complex set of oppressions. According to Davis (1999: 17) “for Black feminists, gender as a category of analysis cannot be independent of race and class...within the context of Black women in nursing, they represent the era of the untrained nurse who in addition to nursing, chose to become actively involved in eradicating the social injustices of slavery and inequality”. Women who were white were not always activists in their pursuit of nursing as a choice, but black women were taking on the role of activist as they fought against the prejudices towards ethnicity as well as the oppression of the female gender. Black women were central to the fight for equality through ethnic differentiation. Women organized and advanced movements, the church being the foundation from which they created a space in which to have a voice. According to Davis (1999: 19) “Womanhood in each of its phases was sanctioned by religious values. Religion suffused black thought and generated the dynamics for black action”. Post the turn of the century, however, there was little to no availability for educating black women in nursing. Despite the position they were taking in fighting for rights and for promoting equality, the fight for the right to function alongside white women, even in the state of oppression imposed on white women, was a much longer and more difficult battle. Conclusion The sense of ‘other’ that comes from the barriers to understanding differences through both gender and ethnicity have affected relations within cultures that have often defined the experiences of individuals as they have had to navigate those barriers. Racism is a result of fears that develop that concern the protection of a way of life as defined by culture. ‘Otherness’ creates a threat to that way of life as the fear of domination by others so that a culture is impacted creates a natural wariness that has infected social interaction. Gender has a similar fear based state of being in which women are the focal point of procreation, so controlling the perpetuation of blood lines became a patriarchal imperative. As the experiences of black women are examined in respect to how their entry into the nursing profession was framed by both their ethnic experience and their female experience, it is clear that in trying to examine feminist systems of social beliefs the experience of the white woman is different to that of the black woman. Nursing was first experienced as a public sphere extension of the female roles as described during the Victorian era. Women were objectified within their chosen roles. Black women were limited to their choices, their entry in the nursing profession a part of the underground where their experience was based upon activist principles. As the role of the nurse emerged through both ethnic and feminist principles, the experiences of oppression were different and created separate trajectories for activism within the public framework. Bibliography Afshar, H. and Maynard, M. 2003. Gender: Some feminist interventions. London: Taylor and Francis. Andrist, L. C. 2006. A history of nursing ideas. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett. Chitty, K. K., and Black, B. P. (2007). Professional nursing: Concepts & challenges. St. Louis, Mo: Saunders/Elsevier. Davies, C. 17 August 2006. Rewriting nursing history- again? Nursing History Review. Vol. 15. 11-25. Davis, A. (1999). Early Black American leaders in nursing: Architects for integration and equality. Boston: Jones and Bartlett. Birkett, D. 1992. The white woman’s burden in the white man’s grave. In Chaudhuri, N., and Strobel, M. (Eds). Western women and imperialism: Complicity and resistance. (p. 177-187). Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Hanson, K. T. 1992. White women in a changing world. In Chaudhuri, N., & Strobel, M. (Eds). Western women and imperialism: Complicity and resistance. (p. 247-264). Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Hesse-Biber, S. N., and Leavy, P. 2007. Feminist research practice: A primer. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications. Howe, S. 2002. Empire: A very short introduction. New York: Oxford University Press. Hubbard, B. V. and Catt, C. C., 1915. Socialism, feminism, and suffragism: The terrible triplets, connected by the same umbilical cord, and fed from the same nursing bottle. Chicago: American Pub. Co. Malka, S. G. (2007). Daring to care: American nursing and second-wave feminism. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. McLaughlin, P. 2002. Celia, army nurse and mother remembered: A nurse for the century. Bloomington, IN?: 1stBooks Library. Rattansi, A. 2007. Racism: A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ray, M. K., & Kundu, R. 2004. Studies in women writers in English. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors. Walters, M. 2005. Feminism: A very short introduction. New York: Oxford University Press Inc. Read More