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'Don't forget your cotton underwear girls': Femininity and Australian Army nurses in the Vietnam War (1967-1971)
Narelle Biedermann
James Cook University, Townsville QLD
Abstract
War and nursing are unequivocally linked and the impact that this type of nursing has had upon the nursing profession in indisputable.
However, a review of the Australian scholarly nursing literature revealed that the contribution and experiences of Australian nurses in the Vietnam War has not been widely published. The direct involvement of Australian women in the Vietnam War was limited, and as female nurses, they were unquestionably a minority.
This paper describes the gender issues that confronted the nurses who worked within the confines of war.
Keywords
military nursing, femininity, oral history, qualitative research
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