FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE
foundation for medical organization, cleanliness and patient care. She also opened
doors that had previously been closed to women in the field of nursing and in its
management. Florence Nightingale presents an individual who was not as ardent
feminist, but one who had a broader focus in life. She achieved this focus by finding
her own identity despite the obstacles that sought to block her endeavors.
Florence Nightingale sought to identify with what were seen at the time as the
more male oriented characteristics of power and determination. She also rooted her work
in nursing on her inner identity as an upper-class Christian woman. She shunned the ideal
of her time of the vulnerable woman while at the same time promoting her own pious
views. This tug-of-war between societys expectations and her own desires as an
individual makes her the fascinating figure that transfixed many today who read about
her life and work. This paper will review the Nightingales life and her troublesome self
perception as an upper-class woman who defies her societys conventions and follows her
own chosen path.
Florence Nightingales early life set the tone for her later work as a nurse and for
the views that she held about her place in society along with that of other women. The
ideal image of her as a tender, nurturing female is one of the many myths that
holds only a half truth in it.
As Myra Stark points out in her forward of Cassandra, Nightingale focused on
three primary things in her nursing her leadership ability, organizational skills and
sanitation of the hospital environment. These were the real focus of her work, and not so
much as the gentle, supporting woman.
These three skills were at the heart of the work she did as a nurse and in how
she led the later reform movements within the Army medical corps. These were
bred into her at a young age, along with her staunch nature against being a woman
chained to the home and seen as an inferior individual to a man. Growing up in a well-
to-do Victorian family, Start explains that Nightingale was outwardly accepting of
what her parents modeled was appropriate female standing, but on the inside she was
heading in the opposite direction.
An intelligent individual who had been given varied education, she soon found
this type of life was not suited to her. The Victorian lady was not a match to her
character.
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1. Nightingale, Florence, Cassandra Angry Outcry Against the Forced Idleness of Women (New Haven The Feminist Press, 1979), p. 1.
2. Ibid, 4.
3. Florence Nightingale, Cassandra An Angry Outcry Against the Forced Idleness of Women (New Haven The Feminist Press, 1979), p. 6. Victorian society expected women to be a fixture who dressed according to her husbands preferences, manage the house staff, educate the children and be a primary supporter. They were also advised to do varying hobbies, such as music or art. The strong
distinction between the role of a woman and a man was pushed through both societal norms and different publications.
The Victorian home was, as Cowan points out, called the cult of
domesticity. The role of woman and man within the family unit became two, distinctly
separate roles that were clearly defined in their limitations. The family was seen as a
secure place, away from the dangers of society. Within this enclosure of the family, the
woman took on a more subservient role to the male head of household, which was
especially promoted in those of the middle class. It is within this type of family that
Florence Nightingale grew up.
This family unit that was seen as safe by Victorian society was oppressive
and repulsive to Nightingale. She began to feel the yearnings to separate from the
boring, dull life of inactivity that awaited her for something more
God has something for me to do for him -- or he would have let me die sometime ago. I hope to do it by living -- then my eyes would indeed have seen his salvation -- but now I am dust nothing -- worse than nothing -- a curse to myself others.
This yearning that she felt was kept within, but it continued to boil not far below
the surface, emerging slowly over the next few years as she began a journey to alter the
course that Victorian society and her family had set out for her. Nightingale did not see
herself of playing any part that did not involve the full exercise of her mind and curiosity.
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1. Cowan, Philip A, Family, Self and Society Toward a New Agenda for Family Research, Volume 1992 (Hillsdale Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 1993), p.54.
2. Nightingale, Florence, Vicinus, Martha and Nergaard, Bee, eds., Ever Yours, Florence Nightingale Selected Letters (Boston Harvard University Press, 1990), p. 28.
Florence Nightingale wanted to focus her life in a direction that would make the
best use of her immense energy and intelligence. Anything else, as far as she was
concerned, was a waste of breath. This led her to completely turn away from the role
that her society and family both demanded of her. This started a series of rebellions
that foreshadows her later strength and spirit in pushing for change in her work.
This educated, willful and determined young woman was growing apart from
the perceived notions of a traditional society. But there are still hints of how that role of
the woman as a supporter stayed with her throughout her life. She simply redefined the
supporter as a healer, as she states in some of her writing, Every woman, or at least
almost every woman, in England has, at one time or another in her life, charge of the
personal health of somebody, whether child or invalid in other words, every woman is a
nurse.
This idea of all women, at one time or another, being a type of nurse was defined
by Nightingale through her three tenets of successful nursing leadership, sanitation
and organization. Her natural assertiveness not only showed in her work, but in her
writing. She had high expectations for women to educate themselves, as she had the
temerity to do, I do not pretend to teacher her how, I expect her to teach herself, and for
this purpose I venture to give her some hints.
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1. Nightingale, Florence, Cassandra Angry Outcry Against the Forced Idleness of Women (New Haven The Feminist Press, 1979), p. 2.
2. Nightingale, Florence, Notes on Nursing What it is, and What it is Not (Philadelphia J.B. Lippincott Company, 1992), p. 2.
3. Ibid, p. 2.
Her boredom with the life of an unfettered, decoration that an upper class
Victorian woman was seen as couldnt contain her spirit. She needed a target for her
energies, and she found one in her acquaintance with reformer Lord Ashley.
Self education became an avid occupation, and she studied reports and books that dealt
with the current state of conditions and the handling of sanitation in Englands hospitals.
The early sunrise was spent delved into these materials, taking copious notes. Her
decorative status returned when the family ate breakfast, and she would return to
acting the part of a Victorian lady for the family.
This double life led to an inner struggle, where she wrestled with her restlessness
and dissatisfaction with her current life and inner desires to be someone else completely.
Her mind wandered often during the many social engagements and family moments that
dictated she live as she had been raised to. Nightingale felt, to a degree that her lapses
into daydreaming were sinful, and prayed about her lack of contentment. This struggle
between who she knew she was and who society demanded she be would soon come to a
head.
Her religious convictions, in essence, supported her rebellion to another life.
According to Stark, she believed that the best way to worship God was by offering help
support to others through daily kindness. Serving others was the way to live the true
Christian life, and her constant inner dialogue which struggled to define her path finally
found its voice in 1837.
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1. Nightingale, Florence, Cassandra Angry Outcry Against the Forced Idleness of Women (New Haven The Feminist Press, 1979), p. 7-8.
2. Ibid, p. 8.
You can discern Florence Nightingales frustration at being pulled between the
two worlds she lived in, one she outwardly accepted and the other that she inwardly
despised from her own words
In the conventional society, which men have made for women, and women have
accepted, they must have none, they must act the farce of hypocrisy, the lie that they are
without passion -- and therefore what else can they say to their daughters, without giving
the lie to themselves
This strong passion to serve that was rooted in a deep sense of religious
devotion gave her the necessary foundation to take the next step into the live that
she was about to lead. That devotion to serve would be essential in keeping her
sense of identity strong in a society and a field that was mostly dominated by men.
As she saw the world at that moment before she changed scope of her life, her words
best express her she felt at this turning point in her life
Passion, intellect, moral activity -- these three have never been satisfied in
woman. In this cold and oppressive conventional atmosphere, they cannot be satisfied.
To say more on this subject would be to enter into the whole history of society, of the
present state of civilization.
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1. Nightingale, Florence, Calabria, Micheal D. and Macrae, Janet, Suggestions for Thought (Pennsylvania University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994), p. xviii.
2. Nightingale, Florence, Florence Nightingales Angry Outcry Against the Forced Idleness of Victorian Women Cassandra (New Haven The Feminist Press, 1979), p. 26.
3. Ibid, p. 29.
Florence Nightingale took her learning and newfound sense of service, putting
them forth into the first step of a new life and a new definition of who she was.
She accepted a position at the Gentlewomens Institution as a superintendent. The
institution was ripe for change, and measures were needed to improve its overall
functioning. She put her knowledge to work immediately and focused on making
the care of patients one of her top priorities.
At this early stage in her career, Nightingale had established a strong sense of
personal service to others, but had not fully developed in her role as a manager. Her
assertiveness and determination to improve the healthcare of the patients clashed with the
new staff that she was in charge of. Ulrich points out that in this early role, she had many
staff quit within the first few months.
Her high standards for patient care and cleanliness were, over time, to help
make the state of medical care in her country better. These strict standards were over
time mixed with a regimented system of management that was to become her
trademark. When it came to patient care, Nightingale had stringent advice for nurses
The most important practical lesson that can be given to nurses is to teach them
what to observe - how to observe - what symptoms indicate improvement - what the
reverse - which are of importance - which are of none - which are the evidence of neglect - and what kind of neglect.
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1. Ulrich, Beth T., Leadership and Management According to Florence
Nightingale (Norwalk Simon Schuster, 1992), p. 3.
2. Ibid, p. 3-4.
3. Nightingale, Florence, Notes of Nursing (Philadelphia J.B. Lippincott Company, 1992), p. 59.
But here, as she enters into the fray of the medical field, Nightingale encountered
a new obstacle to her strong, assertive identity. Within the medical field, few women
were present in a role where they could effect real change. Faced with this, she had to be
careful how she approached her work, but at the same time pursue her personal goals
for reform of the medical establishment. This is where, as Ulrich points out, one of her
true talents come into play her flexibility. By being able to bend when needed, she
could get things done.
For a woman to establish her identity in this kind of a situation could be
challenging, and it was a topic that Nightingale explored in her writings
Now, why is it more ridiculous for a man than for a woman to do worsted
work and drive out everyday in the carriage Why should we laugh if we were to see a parcel of men sitting round a drawing-room table in the morning, and think it all right if they were women
Is mans time more valuable than womans or is the difference between man and woman this, that woman has confessedly nothing to do
Here Nightingale shows her astute observation of how society could look at itself,
seeing the waste that was created by reducing women to a role of a decorative element of
the domestic scene. In her eyes, leaving intelligence and passion to atrophy was not only
a waste of a valuable human life, but also a waste of what could be used in the service of
God and of the rest of humanity.
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1. Ulrich, Beth T., Leadership and Management According to Florence
Nightingale (Norwalk Simon Schuster, 1992), p. 13.
2. Nightingale, Florence, Cassandra Angry Outcry Against the Forced Idleness of Women (New Haven The Feminist Press, 1979), p. 32.
She takes this concept a bit further, and in a rather more radical direction as she
brings Christ into the picture. Nightingale turns the tables on the traditional view of
Christ, stating
Christ, if He had been a woman, might have been considered nothing but a
great complainer.
She makes an interesting statement here, bringing her fervent religious focus
to a fine point by providing this twist on the Son of God. As McDonald points out
succinctly, here we can see a possible inner desire in Nightingale to express her views
on religion more forcefully, possibly as a preacher. In her own private writing,
she even writes rough drafts of sermons on various subjects. Nightingale was also
intimately familiar with the Bible, and at times in her writing would change the
wording so that it would include not just men, but women as well. One example of this
shows when she interjects female pronouns where normally a simple male reference
would have been used.
For the Victorian time period, these ideas and references would have been seen as
radical in many circles, but they show, how even early on, Nightingale was searching for
a way to fit her perceptions into the thread of society. Religion, like medicine, allowed
her a source to explore and fine tune these concepts with. They also provided her with a
challenging outlet for her immense energies.
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1. Nightingale, Florence and McDonald, Lynn, ed. Florence Nightingales Spiritual Journey Biblical Annotations, Sermons and Journal Notes (Waterloo Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2001), p. 69.
2. Ibid, p. 69-70.
The challenge for Nightingale now was to grow as a woman, bringing her
religious knowledge, learning and quest for reform into sync with effective
management skills. Developing the ability to work with and supervise others would
be critical to her later efforts within the English medical establishment. This aspect of
her identity would be the most challenging. On one hand, she would need her strength
assertiveness to be an effective leader, but she would also have to walk a careful line
to keep the support of those who could help her make reform a reality.
One of her habits that helped in this direction was shown early on the ability
to communicate with others easily, to show gratitude and doing it in a timely manner.
Responding to letters, giving updates on patient care and status and clearly showing
her desire to do a high quality job made her better able to accrue valuable contacts
within the medical community. This would open the door for later opportunities for
her to get the reforms enacted that she wanted.
In this manner, Nightingale, even at the beginning of her career, was showing
those she met that a woman could be an effective and successful manager. Her attention
to detail in varying matters under her supervision were early earmarks of what was to
come later on. It also illustrates that she was able to deal with the politics that are so often
a part of any administrative position.
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1. Ulrich, Beth T. Leadership and Management According to Florence Nightingale (Norwalk Appleton Lange, 1992), p. 16. When working at the Invalid Gentlewomens Institution, her updates on varying issues within the institution were the first that the governing committee had ever gotten. This shows her acute attention to both patient care and administrative needs as well. This also marks a well balanced managerial approach.
Nursing, according to Florence Nightingale, epitomized the scope of her entire
life, in both a career and as a definition of what inwardly drove her to serve others
Pray do not think that I cried down Hospital life. To me it is the most sacred, the
holiest of all. What the highest character worth but to use it are those who have none What is holiness for God to spend it for those who are unholy And the lovely things one sees among Patients, the return of good feeling among those who for years have never heard a good word would alone make life a delightful one.
The life in medical work would come into life dramatically when she decided to
take her nursing skills to the battlefront, which involved nursing soldiers during the
Crimean war. Like her first position at the institution, the situation in Crimea was in
desperate need of medical improvements. As Trevor Royle quotes a letter written by Sir
Robert Peel as to the conditions of medical treatment for wounded soldiers
The worn-out pensioners who were brought out as an ambulance corps are totally
useless, and not only are surgeons not to be had, but there are no dressers and nurses to carry out the surgeons directions and to attend on the sick during intervals between his visits. Here the French are greatly our superiors. There medical arrangements are extremely good, theyre surgeons are numerous, and they have also the help of the sisters of Charity, who have accompanied expedition in incredible numbers. These devoted women are excellent nurses.
The deplorable conditions that was present on the battlefield for the care of
wounded soldiers demanded reform. Here, Nightingale and the nurses under her charge
not only had to deal with the horrific conditions but also an obstacle in the form of
a power struggle. The nurses attempts to ease the suffering of the soldiers was
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1. Nightingale, Florence, Florence Nightingales Views on the Age at Which a Young Lade Should Become a Nurse, British Medical Journal, Volume 2, no. 4692 (1950), p.1328.
2. Royle, Trevor, Crimea The Great Crimean War 1854-1856 (New York Palgrave MacMillan, 2000), p. 247.
blocked at times by many of the doctors that they were trying to help. The presence of the
nurses was resented by some doctors and the medical administration found them to be a
further complication in an already chaotic mess.
This was a situation where Florence Nightingales abilities in management,
flexibility and determination were going to be put to the test. From her earliest letters
she clearly and strongly asserts her displeasure at the conditions present
But oh you gentlemen of England, who sit at home in all the well-earned satisfaction of your successful cases, can have little idea from reading the newspapers, of the horror misery (in a military Hospl.) of operating upon these dying and exhausted men -- a London Hospl. is a garden of flowers to it -- we have had such a sea in the Bosporus, and the Turks, the very man for whom we are fighting, carry our wounded so cruelly that they arrive in the state of agony --
This letter may also reveal some of her frustration in dealing with the resentment
that was being showed by the doctors they worked with. She was not to be hampered in
her efforts, and put her determination into practice. Her devotion to serving others was
also given ample room to express itself in this environment. Here, in the mostly at times
chaotic scene in the hospital there was plenty of suffering souls requiring her attention.
Nightingale was able to improve the situation in many regards not only with the help of
her nurses, her ability to manage but also in the fact that she had access to funds
necessary to enact reform.
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1. Royle, Trevor, Crimea The Great Crimean War 1854-1856 (New York Palgrave MacMillan, 2000), p. 253.
2. Nightingale, Florence and Goldie, Sue M., ed., Florence Nightingale Letters from the Crimea, 1854-1856 (New York Palgrave MacMillan, 2000.
3. Royle, Trevor, Crimea The Great Crimean War 1854-1856 (New York Palgrave MacMillan, 2000), p. 255.
In essence, Florence Nightingale was congealing all of these experiences and
skills into a realistic and practical reformer. She was able to clearly see the reality of
the womens situation within Victorian society and worked to find a practical solution
for the idleness and boredom that plagued her own life. She also focused on women
who did not have access to the same opportunities that she had a child. One of her letters
from 1878 shows this concern
Might I ask that it should be applied to providing work for the poor women, work which I know has been so well organized And if I might breathe a hope as ardent as that which trusts that Sheffield will be tided over the sad, sad times, it would be better men may learn from these lessons of prudence, manliness and self-control, and when the good times come again, as pray God they may, they use their high wages so as to become capital instead of waste
Florence Nightingale was very supportive of efforts to educate women and help
them to succeed in life. Later in life, in her letters, she reflected on the path she had taken
to get where she was and the obstacles that had been in her path
The difficulties and oppositions of my own youth were so great -- the displeasure of the best people, of those whose opinions one was bound to respect and who looked upon ones calling as little, if any, better than if an educated woman had gone to be a maid of all work, the impossibility of getting any training or preparation at all in England -- for I can remember the time when, rightly or wrongly, careful mothers of any class would almost as soon let their daughters go into temptation as into hospital nursing (and many other things) contributed to form more of a habit of endurance and patience than of anything else -- valuable, no doubt, but which I am thankful is not needed in the same way now that the path is comparatively easy.
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1. Nightingale, Florence and McDonald, Lynn, ed., Florence Nightingale on Society and Politics, Philosophy, Science, Education and Literature (Ontario Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2003), p. 165.
2. McDonald, Lynn, ed., Florence Nightingale on Public Health Care The Collected Works of Florence Nightingale (Ontario Wilfrid Laurier Press, 2004), p. 450.
Florence Nightingale was not alone in rejecting the tenets Victorian era society
that demanded that women be confined to a limited existence. Many others desired
nothing more than to lead lives of purpose and challenge. Even the religious views of the
time was interpreted to work in tandem in supporting this limited role. Beatrice Potter,
as Jane Lewis points out, strove to educate herself in order to challenge her mind. Those
women who either did or did not support the suffrage movement of this time did have
one thing in common -- they worked together on concerns in the social realm.
Florence Nightingale would have fallen into this category will of one who
wanted to improve the social condition of women in both educational opportunities
and the chance to live as they chose. Her main focus, though, was on the whole of
mankind, not just women alone. She was talented at managing and dealing with the
situations as she came across in nursing, but she was not a leader in the forefront
at the suffrage movement. This is one of the things that characterizes her as a
practical reformer.
This fits right in with the belief of many reformers in her era that understood that
change can only come if to people in the society to change as well. That is why focusing
on social issues such as poverty, cleanliness, and proper medical care were essential in
bringing this change about. This time period was truly one that focused on the purpose
of service and compassion to everyone, and giving oneself to that service was the highest
ideal.
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1. Lewis, Jane E., Women and Social Action in Victorian and Edwardian England (Stanford Stanford University Press, 1991), p. 6.
2. Ibid, p. 14.
Nightingale wanted to change societys viewpoint that women were nothing more
than simple domestic decorations to adorn the house and to twaddle away their lives
without using the skills and intellect that God had given to them. She states this clearly in
her feelings on the issue
And family boasts that it has performed its mission well, and as far as it has enabled the individual to say, I have no peculiar work, nothing but what the moment brings me, nothing that I cannot throw up at once at anybodys claim and as far, that is, as it has destroyed the individual life. And the individual thinks that a great victory has been accomplished, when, at last, she is able to say that she has no personal desires or plans. What is this but growing the gifts of God aside as worthless, and substituting for them those of the world
This desire to not waste her life as she felt society had demanded of her as a
young woman led her to become the reformer, leader an instrument of change that
she eventually became over time. Though her past has been prone to popular myth
in modern times, her identity at the time that she lived was of her own making. Often,
she is used by various individuals who either elaborate or degrade her story for their own
use.
In these regards, Florence Nightingale was truly a woman not of the Victorian era
with its traditional gender roles, but have the time to come that focused on reform. She
was in step with what was to come in an undercurrent that desired improvement in the
quality of life for everyone, regardless of their place within society.
_____________________________________________
1. Nightingale, Florence, Cassandra Angry Outcry Against the Forced Idleness of Women (New Haven The Feminist Press, 1979), p. 38.
This is how Florence Nightingale was able to establish herself and have a strong
sense of identity in the society that was pulling her into different directions. Starting as a
curious young woman who desire nothing more than to learn and interact in the world,
she grew into a force to be reckoned with and ended up causing a great amount of change
within her society. Working to self educate and to pursue her passion regardless of her
familys wishes, she strove to show that the belief that women were not of the same
caliber as men in Victorian society was untrue.
This practical reformer with a headstrong quest to live her life to the fullest
expresses her viewpoint the best
How different would be the heart for the work, and how different would be the success, if we learnt our work as a serious study, and followed it out steadily as a profession
This shows that her true identity was defined not only by her work, but also by
belief in a benevolent life that was driven to serve humanity in every respect, and to
allow all the opportunity to reach their full potential, no matter what their gender
may be. Florence Nightingale was an example of practical social reform that was
a flicker of the light of change yet to come within Victorian society and later in
our modern time.
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