- Joined
- Dec 21, 2015
I have stumbled onto a series of articles put out by The National Museum of Civil War Medicine that might be of interest (I apologize ahead of time if any of this information is redundant):
When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Dix sprang into action. She made her way to Washington, where an influx of wounded soldiers with gruesome injuries arrived daily. Unlike today, there was no organized system of battlefield-to-bedside care in place to treat the wounded. Dix wanted to help fix this. She introduced a radical idea: permitting women to enter the predominately-male profession of nursing, thereby increasing the number of available nurses while the men were off fighting. Dix convinced the Army to create the nation’s first female nursing corps … under her control of course.
As Superintendent of Army Nurses, Dix laid out guidelines for the recruitment of female Union nurses. She chose candidates between the ages of 35 and 50 and insisted they be “plain looking” to avoid tempting the male soldiers and doctors. Dix forbade her nurses from wearing jewelry, makeup, curls, bows, or hoop-skirts. Army doctors and nurses alike bristled at Dix’s demands. They began referring to her as “Dragon Dix” or the “Dictator in a Petticoat.” read further http://www.civilwarmed.org/dorothea-dix/
As Superintendent of Army Nurses, Dix laid out guidelines for the recruitment of female Union nurses. She chose candidates between the ages of 35 and 50 and insisted they be “plain looking” to avoid tempting the male soldiers and doctors. Dix forbade her nurses from wearing jewelry, makeup, curls, bows, or hoop-skirts. Army doctors and nurses alike bristled at Dix’s demands. They began referring to her as “Dragon Dix” or the “Dictator in a Petticoat.” read further http://www.civilwarmed.org/dorothea-dix/
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