Contested femininity: gender and work at the Sydney infirmary, 1868-1875

Prior to the arrival of the Nightingale trained nurses at the Sydney Infirmary in 1868 gender relations at the Infirmary were based on clear cut authority relations between 'respectable' male doctors and administrators and female nurses who were outside acceptable Victorian notions of ideal femininity. While the Nightingale nurses brought with them the protection of respectability, higher class and status, they also held professional aspirations concerning the creation of an autonomous sphere in which to establish their own set of authority relations within the Infirmary. The struggle which ensued had ramifications for gender relations within the institution, for the status of women in colonial Sydney society and also for the nascent colonial state, which set a precedent for state intervention into gender relations.