Over the past three decades, significant changes have occurred in the nursing
profession and in the conventional societal definitions of women and their
roles. As the women’s movement reemerged in the late 1960s and many women
refused to uphold the traditional roles allocated to them, a parallel trend in
nursing centered on the development of “expanded” roles for nurses: the “independent”
practitioner, nurse clinician, and nurse practitioner. As these professional
and societal trends gained momentum in the 1970s, the conflicts inherent
in integrating professional and gender roles became overt and critically
important. In nursing it became obvious that it would be improbable, if not
impossible, to prepare assertive, independent nurse practitioners if they were
socialized to be dependent females. Similarly, it is improbable, if not impossible,
for female nurses to implement expanded roles if they are unaware of or
unwilling to recognize the social constraints imposed on them because they
are women. Indeed, the successes or failures of the nursing profession in its
struggle to grow in stature and gain autonomy during its long history cannot
be fully understood unless they are integrally linked to the relationship between
gender and professional roles as these have changed over time