Press Releases
Women and Gender Studies Presents UIC Scholar to Lecture in Honor of National Women's History Month
Dr. Katrin Schultheiss to speak on professionalization of nursing in France from 1880 to 1922.
CHICAGO (February 28, 2004) - Saint Xavier University's Women and Gender Studies program will present its annual Women's History Month Lecture 2 to 4 p.m., Wednesday, March 18 in the 4 th Floor Board Room of the Warde Academic Center, on SXU's Chicago Campus, 3700 W. 103 rd St. Dr. Katrin Schultheiss, associate professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, will present a lecture titled "Religion, Politics and Women's Work: The Professionalization of Nursing in France, 1880-1922."
Schultheiss, who teaches in the Gender and Woman's Studies Program and the History Department of UIC, will present her research and findings on the changing outlook on nursing in France at the turn of the twentieth century. Until that time, most hospitals in France were staffed by female members of Catholic religious orders who - day in and day out - performed and went essentially unpaid for the grueling work of patient care. As the nineteenth century drew to a close, however, many republican politicians and physicians began to question the medical competence of the nuns and the appropriateness of having so many religious women in state-funded institutions. The effort to train secular women began in earnest around 1900 but rapidly ran into political obstacles. Would the rapidly professionalizing physician tolerate the presence of secular women with real medical expertise? Would a government concerned about population decline promote a profession for single women? How would patients react to the eviction of the familiar religious nursing personnel? This talk examines the political fortunes of women professionals caught in the conflict among Church, State and the medical establishment.
Schultheiss earned a Ph.D. in History from Harvard University . She is the author of "Bodies and Souls: Politics and the Professionalization of Nursing in France , 1880-1922" (published in 2001). Currently, she is writing a cultural biography of the Charcot family tentatively entitled "Art and Nature: The Charcot Family in Modern France."
For more information, please call (773) 298-3000.