More than handmaids
Nursing, labor activism and feminism
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12310539 |
|---|---|
| Authors | J Lingel (0000-0002-7140-9204, Annenberg School for Communication University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia Pennsylvania USA), Rosemary Clark (0000-0001-5339-2800, University of Pennsylvania), Rosemary Clark-Parsons (Annenberg School for Communication University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia Pennsylvania USA), Kim Branciforte (UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Outreach Program University of California at San Francisco San Francisco California USA) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 1149-1163 |
| Publication date | 2022-02-07 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Gender Work and Organization (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0968-6673 • E-ISSN: 1468-0432 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/gwao.12816 |
| OpenAlex | W4210866688 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 26 |
In the United States, the nursing profession has been dominated by women, who constitute nearly 90% of the workforce. The profession's popularity among women has consequences for gendered assumptions about labor: unions represent a key path for demanding equitable working conditions, yet the gendered framing of nursing has undermined efforts at building a labor movement within the profession. We offer two contributions with this paper: documenting the working lives of women nurses at a pediatric hospital in Oakland, CA, and unpacking the interrelated tensions between nursing, union work, and feminism. Drawing on interviews with 10 women nurses at Children's Hospital Oakland, we analyze the complex negotiations between gender and feminism that emerge in the everyday lives of union nurses. We use the concept of feminist agency as an organizing principle for understanding the disconnects between nurses and feminist discourse, and the affordances of labor activism for gaining workplace equity and mobilizing broader commitments to health justice
Agency (philosophy · Feminism · Framing (construction · Negotiation · Political science · Politics · Popularity · Social science · Sociology · Workforce · Emotional Labor in Professions · Gender Diversity and Inequality · Gender Studies · Law · Medicine · Nursing · Work-Family Balance Challenges
Gender Diversity and Nurse-Physician Relationships
Transnational Spaces of Care
Masculinity and Non‐Traditional Occupations
Being called sisters’
Ordered to Care
Curating Oral Histories
Mapping the Margins
Feminism and the Labor Movement
Why Teachers Unions Make Such Useful Scapegoats
Feminist Frequencies
Union Women
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |