Page:A short history of nursing - Lavinia L Dock (1920).djvu/25

Rh and certainly for many centuries, nursing was regarded as a calling impossible except for those who renounced the world. From this point of view the care of the sick was a purely sacrificial or expiatory exercise, only to be endured by those having an intensely religious motive. This might be a spontaneous pious devotion, or remorse with a repentant desire to atone for sin. Either one was considered sufficient qualification for taking up nursing.

While the prevailing status of women in the passing centuries was thus faithfully reflected in the ranks of nurses at work, it was also, at favourable periods, considerably influenced and modified by their activities. There is in the nature of nursing something which resists convention and artificial restriction. Pioneers and leaders in our profession have always felt this, even in remote centuries, and have shown a courage and an independence in action that must always have contributed definitely, even if unconsciously, to the feminist movements of their day. From this aspect of the "woman movement" the social prestige of highborn women who entered nursing has been very helpful, while, as modern times approached, nursing became a pioneer in offering economic independence to women of education and good