The late Ottoman era and its legacy for nursing in Turkey

Reforms in the late Ottoman era had dramatic effects on health, education, and gender roles. Women had been midwives and nurses in the imperial palace since the early modern period, but few had public roles and they did not participate in the military sphere. This study examines nursing at the crossroads of these changes, showing that shifting societal attitudes form the context for women’s increasing involvement in public activities and professions and contributed to their successful wartime recruitment by the Ottoman Red Crescent in the early twentieth century, setting the stage for modern nursing’s development in the Republic of Turkey.