Seldom Thanked, Never Praised, and Scarcely Recognized: Gender and Racism in Civil War Hospitals

The Origins of Incivility in Nursing: How Reconstruction-Era Policies and Organizations Impacted Social Behavior within the Nursing Profession

“…Just as White men had military dominion of women, White women modeled their superiority by overseeing the work of Black women. (Schultz, 2002, p. 228) Schultz (2002) argued that as institutions that shaped racial interactions, military hospitals played a key role in advancing and reproducing the "hierarchies of privilege and subjugation invisible to the Pdf_Folio:68…”

“…Furthermore, the view that Union relief work was God's work, "the purest motives of patriotism and benevolence" (McKay, 1876, n.p. ), and not about salary and wage earning, was widely held among White women relief workers who did not need a salary or wages and thought of themselves as superior to women, often poor White and/or Black women who did need a salary (Schultz, 2002). Fuller (2003) argues that rank itself is not the culprit, but the power of rank and the subsequent issue of rankism, the use and abuse of position to exert power and secure unwarranted advantages or benefits.…”