Perspectives in Femininity

This article is adapted from an address given at a meeting of the Texas Section of The Nurses Association of The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, in February, 1973, at San Antonio.
Society no longer demands that women fit the old image of "femininity"—passivity, wifeliness, physical attractiveness, and anti-intellectualism. Women are now freer to fulfill their full human potential. The change in the concept of femininity has affected nursing practice in two ways. First, with different roles and different morality, clients bring different problems to the nurse-counselor. Secondly, the change has divided nurses themselves into two opposing camps. Some adhere to the traditional nursing role which correlates with the old ideas of femininity, including nonparticipation in decision-making and subservience to authority figures. They may thwart the efforts of their professional counterparts to gain acceptance as professionals in their own right.