I recently presented a paper at the Canadian Association for the History of Nursing/Canadian Society of Medical History meeting at the Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities at Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario (May 23-31, 2009). I have had quite a response to the study so I thought I would share a bit about it for those who were unable to make it to the meeting.
Firstly, how the paper "Badges of Honour or Devices of Control? Nursing Uniforms At Kingston General Hospital" came to be. The Master's in Public History Program at the University of Western Ontario offers the opportunity to work in the public history field for a semester. While enrolled in this program in 2007-8 I was honoured to work at the Museum of Health Care at Kingston as their Dr. Margaret Angus Research Fellow for 2008. I have a personal interest in the history of clothing stemming from my early experience as a student of costume design and a museum curator of costume which I brought to the position. While at the Museum of Health Care (MHC) I spent just over 3 months studying nursing uniforms in the museum collection that were worn by students of the Kingston General Hospital Training School for Nurses in Kingston. The MHC have an extensive collection (and a great new permanent exhibit on the subject of nursing at KGH with lots on the history of nursing uniforms). I also used the archives at KGH located next to the museum. (The photo above was taken of me at the MHC next to one of the museum displays).
The primary sources were very important to me - especially the uniforms themselves and the voices of the nurses that wore them. Talking to graduates of the training school and hearing their opinions on the uniforms provided a great deal of insight for me.
I also read a lot of literature on the subject - I could be found on most days in Queen's University Library with a stack of books on subjects that included clothing and uniform history, medical history, nursing history and of course, the more focused literature on nursing uniforms. I also branched off onto general subjects of feminist and labour history in order to better situate my study and gain knowlege of the various perspectives. What I discovered during my primary research was that there is a lot more to the uniform than being just a form of control for the nurses which was the dominant perspective expressed in the literature I covered. Many student nurses I talked to liked their school uniforms and found them quite empowering. This was the perspective I chose to focus on for my study.
I won't put up the whole paper (as I am still working on fine tuning it - and it's long!) but here is the introduction. My original manuscript (50pgs) is also available at the Museum of Health Care (or through me) - this has also changed a bit. I am happy to answer any questions about my reseach so please feel free to email me: andrea.melvin[at]hotmail.com (replace the [at] with @).
Badges of Honour or Devices of Control? Nursing Uniforms at Kingston General Hospital Training School for Nurses
By Andrea Melvin, Dip. Costume Studies, Hons. B.A. (Dalhousie ‘05), M.A. Public History (Western ‘08)
At the
This paper looks briefly at the late Victorian period when the uniform was introduced to KGH, until the 1970s when the uniform became no longer mandatory for nursing schools. I draw on archival sources, oral history and actual nursing garments. In this presentation I argue that there is much more to the uniform than the form of control and oppression it is represented as in literature on the subject.
This literature offers interpretations in the context of Marxist and feminist scholarship that support the view that nursing uniforms were used to oppress nurses in training. James M. Wishart, for instance, likened the student nurses at Kingston General Hospital (KGH) in Foucauldian terms to “trained soldiers,” and that nursing leaders at KGH like Ann Baillie viewed students as merely “material” that filled the uniform.[1] In his opinion, the nurse’s uniform demonstrated one aspect of the rigorous discipline that nurses faced while in training. Historian Kathryn McPherson also viewed the uniforms as a symbol of oppression and linked uniforms to a form of Victorian repression that was led by the professional elite. McPherson explained that nursing leaders, who wanted to maintain a good reputation at their school, used dress codes as a way to restrict the association of nursing students with more liberal ideas on femininity and sexuality that began in the 1920s.[2] Similarly, Janet Muff sees the uniform as a piece of propaganda for nurses intended to keep them dependent upon male hospital administrators and physicians.[3] Finally, Professor of Nursing, Ellen MacFarlane views the uniform as a symbol of “past struggles” in the nursing profession. In particular, she believes that the cap, because of negative historical symbolism and lack of functionality, should be “placed permanently in the archives.”[4] This coincides with the opinions of more recent generations of nurses; appropriate dress has moved away from the importance of symbolism to an emphasis on functional attire, exemplified by scrubs and other forms of casual wear.
These interpretations offer intriguing insights into the imagery of nurses and nursing, but do not explore how the traditional uniform proved advantageous for student nurses. In my findings, the secular nursing uniform has shaped the public perception of the nurse and remained for many years an important form of professional identification for nurses. When nurses recall their experience in hospital-based training, the nursing uniform is inevitably discussed as a central part of their schooling and they often lament the scrubs worn by nurses today as the loss of a valuable professional tradition. By dismissing the important symbolism found in the uniform by those who wore it means that a piece of the nursing experience is lost. The uniform as a method of control and a symbol of empowerment both have validity and there is no doubt that the symbolism of the nurses’ uniform offers many contradictions. This should not overshadow what nurses found empowering about their uniforms and what they symbolized.
In this paper I look at the following three areas: Firstly, from the beginning, how the uniform helped young women maintain their status in society during a time when there were few respectable occupations open to them.[5] Secondly, how it was used to demonstrate internal ranking, similar to military uniforms, and was a basis for measuring professional success and encouraging women to work towards personal achievement. My third point is that throughout the twentieth century, nurses had influence over the uniform they were wearing.
[1]James M. Wishart, “‘We Have Worked while We Played and Played while We Worked’: Discipline and Disobedience at the
[2] Kathryn McPherson, Bedside Matters: The Transformation of Canadian Nursing 1900-1990. (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1996), 165.
[3] Janet Muff. “Of Images and Ideals: A Look at Socialization and Sexism in Nursing,” in Images of Nurses Perspectives from History, Art, and Literature, ed. Anne Hudson Jones. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1988), 209.
[4] Ibid., 41.
[5] Irene Schuessler Poplin, “Nursing Uniforms: Romantic Idea, Functional Attire, or Instrument of Social Change?” Nursing History Review 2 (1994): 153-167.
