An Officer and a Lady

An unromanticized, nuanced, and complex book. Based on revealing first-hand accounts from the nurses themselves, as well as published memoirs, and military documents, Toman's analysis of the ways in which nursing culture came into conflict with military culture over medical treatment and technology is brilliant. An Officer and a Lady is both pioneering scholarship and a well-told story. -- Christina Bates, co-editor of On All Frontiers: Four Centuries of Nursing in Canada An Officer and a Lady is beautifully written and a real pleasure to read. It asks all the important questions about identity and representation, women's experiences, the meanings of gender, the role of nursing, and the impact of militarization and war. After reading each chapter, I couldn't wait to continue to the next. -- Susan L. Smith, author of Japanese American Midwives: Culture, Community, and Health Politics, 1880-1950

Cynthia Toman analyzes how gender, war, and medical technology intersected to create a legitimate role for women in the masculine environment of the military and explores the incongruous expectations placed on military nurses as “officers and ladies.”

During the Second World War, more than 4,000 civilian nurses enlisted as Nursing Sisters, a specially created all-female officers’ rank of the Canadian Armed Forces. They served in all three armed force branches and all the major theatres of war, yet nursing as a form of war work has long been under-explored. An Officer and a Lady fills that gap. Cynthia Toman analyzes how gender, war, and medical technology intersected to create a legitimate role for women in the masculine environment of the military and explores the incongruous expectations placed on military nurses as “officers and ladies.”