Nursing is, historically, a strange profession. We imagine Florence Nightingale as the precursor of a fine tradition; the classic image of the early nurse is of a missionary nun, ministering to the sick. The term 'ward sister' still survives, proof of the links between nursing and female monastic vocations.
However, the interest of the church in medicine has a wholly antithetical origin. Until WWII, it was part of ordinary life all over the world and throughout history for a large proportion of the male populace to be wiped out in military service. Put bluntly, the population of was subject to a cull.
In other species, the male is capable of siring a great many offspring in comparison to the female. For this reason, rather than physical build or mental resilience, men are the traditional warriors and soldiers of society; in the event of war, a nation can better survive the loss of its men than its women.
Prior to WWII, human society was very different; much of what we now take for granted had yet to be conceived. Contraception, as a case in point, was developed by the Nazis and perpetuated afterwards by the USA, with profound effects on human sexual behavior. For the first time in history, recreational sex became a pastime for all. Formally, multiple partners and other sexual freedoms were the domain of the rich man, who had the luxury of selecting and discarding women largely at will from the lower classes, his right to do so ensured by wealth, privilege and laws stretching back into history. As far back as the Norman Conquest, Prima Nochta was in common practice; a local lord was entitled to the virginity of every common-born bride in his domain.
Conversely, women have been biologically subjugated; sexual activity resulted in pregnancy. Before contraception, the only socially acceptable sexual activity for a woman was within marriage, veiled behind the privacy of family life. Religious disdain added a stigma to the pleasures of the flesh, particularly in England, while Catholic belief in Original Sin inculcated a sense of guilt over the universal imperative to reproduce. Women in particular were subject to such indoctrination, and not for any spiritual merit that mass-asceticism might bring to a nation, but to answer another difficulty faced by men in reproduction; a woman has no doubt regarding the motherhood of her child. A man can be cuckolded, and so lives in fear that his children may not be his own. To avert this, religious, societal and economic controls have been woven through human history, from legally enshrined marriage to rape and female circumcision.
The result, until the mid-twentieth century, was a world dominated by men, with female emancipation minimal at best and true equality a notion yet to be conceived. With the advent of effective contraception, society underwent a sexual revolution; the proof is seen in the East/West divide. In the west, where contraception is effective and freely available, recreational sex is an option for men and women. Pregnancy becomes optional, rather than inevitable. Modern opposition to contraception comes from the remaining bastions of the old ways; the Catholic Church and the upper echelons of the Establishment. The result is a quixotic view of sex in modern society; on the one hand, the media has embraced sexual freedom. We are bombarded night and day with sexual imagery, encouraged to be promiscuous and assured that our technology can negate the consequences. Conversely, people en mass strive to conceal their sexual behavior; we are embarrassed about it, we worry about being 'normal', and yet we do not seek or share genuine information; in spite of sex education, most people learn about sex from their friends, early partners, and the example set by their parents. The net result of this is that, while contraception and pregnancy are widely understood and controlled, venereal disease is widespread. VD has been prevalent wherever sexual promiscuity has been the norm, generally accompanied by prostitution.
Where does this leave the origins of nursing? Florence Nightingale ministered to soldiers, and it is under war-time conditions that the profession of nursing arose. Besides the fighting men, every army and military forcer would, prior to WWI, be accompanied by a baggage train of supplies, provisions and non-combatants. The non-combatants would be mostly women, following the troops, and would be recruited from the same classes as the fighting men. Belying the myriad stories of young lovers parted by war, many girls and women followed their men when they went to war. As the recruiters traveled, they would attract a growing band of women and children behind the marching men. Although most of the women drawn to such a life would be young and naive, there would be a proportion of widows following their sons and youths too young to enlist simply tagging along. During the Crusades, thousands of children died on the road before ever reaching the Holy Land.
