Memories revealed: Veteran nurses discourses on their fight for reinstatement in the military field

Abstract

Objective: to analyze the symbolic effects of the struggle of the members of the first female nursing group of the Brazilian Armed Forces who were reinstated in the Active Army Military Service after the end of their activities during World War II. Method: historical-social research whose sources consisted of written, oral and photographic documents. The findings were classified, contextualized and analyzed according to the historical method according to Pierre Bourdieu’s Social World Theory and Michelle Perrot’s studies on the History of Women. Results: showed that the discourses of these nurses, who worked at the Italian Theater of Operations during the war (1943-1945) and who were reincorporated into the Brazilian Army in 1957, despite reiterating vocations and stereotypes about Nursing practice, highlighted the remnants of a symbolic struggle for the unprecedented conquest of space, power, and prestige for the profession in this culturally masculinized field. Conclusion: the reinstatement of these nurses in the Active Army Military Service served as a basis for the creation of new female military groupings within the Armed Forces starting in the 1980s.