“Boy Science:” CASSANDRA, Feminism, & the Gender Politics of Nursing Knowledge

Jess Dillard-Wright, PhD, MA, CNM, RN

Augusta University

Center for Nursing Research

Learning Objectives 1. At the conclusion of this CNR Seminar, participants will report

knowledge gain of one major underlying assumption for each of the following types of feminism: Radical libertarian feminism, radical cultural feminism, liberal feminism, and socialist/Marxist feminism.

2. At the conclusion of this CNR Seminar, participants will report their intent to change their teaching practice by incorporating one student learning objective in one of their courses about the relationship between feminism and nursing, such as being able to describe this relationship.

3. During the post-program evaluation, participants will report a change in practice of incorporating major points about feminist thought and development of the academic and scientific discipline of nursing in their teaching.

Overview• Introduction• Key concepts in feminism• Meet CASSANDRA• “Boy Science”• The Arc Toward Legitimacy• CASSANDRA’s Radical Feminist Epistemology• Conclusion

Introduction

• Both nursing and science more broadly are gendered• As nursing professionalized and became a discipline,

navigating these gender dynamics had specific implications

• Thinking through the histories of these discourses gives insight into our present state

• CASSANDRA leaves us with a lens on different kinds of possibilities

The Waves of Feminism

Image from: Vijayakumar, G., & Maich, K. (2018). Chapter 9 politicizing gender. In R. RayJ. Carlson, & A. Andrews The social life of gender (pp. 171-192). SAGE Publications, Inc., https://www.doi.org/10.4135/9781506300054.n12

League of Women Voters poster, c. 1920

Lady with a Lamp movie poster,c. 1951

Cassandra painted by Evelyn du Morgan, 1898

First Wave Feminism

Second Wave Feminism: Liberal Feminism

• Aimed for political and economic parity

• Relied on existing legal frameworks as avenue for reform

• Most mainstream framework • Notable figures: Shirley Chisolm,

Gloria Steinem, Kimberle Crenshaw, Bella Abzug

• Key organizations: National Organization for Women, NursesNOW, NARAL

Second Wave Feminism: Socialist/Marxist Feminism

• Located source of women’s oppression in capitalist modes of production

• Notable figures: Angela Davis, Patricia Hill Collins, Donna Haraway

• Key organizations: International Campaign for Wages for Housework; Combahee River Collective*; Women’s International Terrorist Circle from Hell (W.I.T.C.H.); Chicago Women’s Liberation Union

Second Wave Feminism: Radical Feminism

Radical Cultural Feminism

• Power in femininity• Femininity diminished

through patriarchy• Notable figures: Mary Daly,

Rita May Brown, Karla Jay; Adrienne Rich; Peggy Chinn

• Key organizations: Lavender menace; Radicalesbians; CASSANDRA

Radical Libertarian Feminism

• Oppression in femininity and gender essentialism

• Balance between desirable masculine and feminine traits

• Notable figures: ShulamithFirestone; Kate Millett; Gayle Rubin

• Key organizations: Redstockings; New York Radical Feminists

Cassandra Radical Feminist Nurses Network

Unknown photographer. (1984). CASSANDRA in Cleveland [photograph]. Retrieved from https://peggychinn.files.wordpress.com /2013/11/cassandra-cleveland-c19842.jpg

create and develop a group that would truly provide an open forum for feminist nurses from all walks of life and how to avoid the usual male-oriented hierarchy and rigidity of most national organizations.

CASSANDRA Radical Feminist Nurses Network

CASSANDRA sought to:

(LaGodna, 1982, p.1)

I think that nursing was and would always—probably still is, I'm sort of out of touch—was scrambling for legitimacy as—as a field of work, as an intellectual profession, and I think there was a lot of identification with what I used to call

“boy science.” […] we were pretty much seen as troublemakers and, you know, undermining a tremendous effort.

• Scientific Revolution gave way to the Enlightenment

• Led widespread acceptance of constructs like • Scientific method• Empiricism• Democracy

• Assumptions about progress, knowledge, reality, right

• This logic is congruent with ecofeminist analyses

“Boy Science?” A brief detour in the philosophy of science

Engraving from Sir Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis.

• The word “feminism” first appeared in nursing science in

“Boy Science”

• Professionalization of the discipline • Formalization of higher education • Locating the boundaries of nursing knowledge• Building a discipline• Becoming a science

Arc Toward Legitimacy

CASSANDRA and a Radical Feminist Epistemology for Nursing

Collage of Florence Nightingale [image]. Retrieved from https://otr.anmfvic.asn.au/articles/what-florence-nightingale-did

Some Final Thoughts; or Tanks and Trash bags

• Chinn, Peggy, and Elizabeth Berrey. “Cassandra: Lesbian Non-Presence in Nursing.” Sinister Wisdom 92, no. Spring (2014): 50–64.

• Chinn, Peggy, and Charlene Eldridge Wheeler. “Feminism and Nursing.” Nursing Outlook 33, no. 2 (April 1985): 74–77.

• Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness,

and the Politics of Empowerment. New York, NY: Rutledge Classics, 2009. • Deevey, Sharon. Cassandra Oral Histories (complete). Interview by Jessica

Dillard-Wright. Audio recording, November 9, 2019.• Echols, Alice. Daring to Be Bad: Radical Feminism in America, 1967-1975.

30th Anniversary Edition. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2019.

References

• LaGodna, Gretchen. “Cassandra: A Report of Beginnings.” Cassandra

Radical Feminist Nurses Newsletter 1, no. 1 (1982): 1–2.

• Tobbell, Dominique A. “Nursing’s Boundary Work: Theory Development

and the Making of Nursing Science, ca. 1950–1980.” Nursing Research

67, no. 2 (April 2018): 63–73.

https://doi.org/10.1097/NNR.0000000000000251.

• Tong, Rosemarie, and Tina Fernandes Botts. Feminist Thought: A More

Comprehensive Introduction. 5th ed. New York, NY: Westview Press,

2017.

References