During the Second World War, more than 4,000 civilian nurses enlisted as Nursing Sisters, a specially created all-female officers’ rank of the Canadian Armed Forces. They served in all three armed force branches and all the major theatres of war, yet nursing as a form of war work has long been under-explored. An Officer and a Lady fills that gap. Cynthia Toman analyzes how gender, war, and medical technology intersected to create a legitimate role for women in the masculine environment of the military and explores the incongruous expectations placed on military nurses as “officers and ladies.”
Their stories will interest diverse audiences: students and professionals in the healthcare fields; nursing and medical historians; and scholars and readers of women’s history, military history, and Canadian history.
- Author: Cynthia Toman
- Paperback: 272 pages
- Dimensions: 6.25 x 9.25 inches
- Publisher: UBC Press