The Nursing Struggle in Australia

Abstract

The contemporary occupational struggle by nursing in Australia presents to the sociologist a pair of apparently contradictory tendencies: professionalisation along the lines drawn by the medical profession (Pittman, 1985), or assertive trade unionism along with other sections of the working class (Salvage, 1985). This paper assesses the applicability of each of these strategies for nursing in Australia and suggests that neither model is adequate in dealing with the importance of gender in the nursing struggle or with conflicting interests between different classes of women within nursing. An alternative feminist analysis is then forwarded—one that locates the current nursing struggle within the context of contemporary class and gender relations.

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