Las enfermeras de chile como fuerza política (1970-1986): tiempo, agencia y estrategia

Abstract

By using archival material, this article discusses the way in which nurses, as a female collectivity, took a stance during the process of reconfiguration of power in the 1970s and 1980s, especially in defending their own collective interests. Nurses became an interest group before the Parliament, developed their networks, used their influences, deployed survival strategies and exerted active resistance against oppression. As it was the case in other spheres, as the archives show, an ideological schism within the nursing community occured. The sources also show the interactions between nurses and the State, highlighting the agency of one of the largest healthcare professions and one of the most iconic group among the trained female workforce.

Keywords

• women
• political history
• Cold War
• nurses
• health professions
• political agency