According to Susan Reverby's Ordered to Care, the most salient fact about the occupation of nursing has been its traditional...
GMAT Reading Comprehension : (RC) Questions
According to Susan Reverby's Ordered to Care, the most salient fact about the occupation of nursing has been its traditional conceptualization by both the public and medical professionals as women's work, a judgment that has had a dramatic impact both on the nature of the tasks nurses perform and on the status of the profession. Reverby demonstrates how this ideology of nursing grew, not out of a belief in women's rights but from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century understandings of womanly character and duty.
Before 1870, nursing took place either in the home, where women nursed their loved ones as part of their familial obligations or in hospitals, which were custodial institutions for the poor. Despite the differences in the settings, women in each of these roles were assumed to be 'naturals' for the job, so hospital nurses were paid wages whose meagerness suggested money's irrelevance to the true character of nursing.
Even after 1870, when scientific and medical advances hastened the development of nursing as skilled paid labor, the ideology concerning nursing changed very little. True, leaders in nursing education advocated professionalism: being a woman was necessary, but not sufficient, for nursing. They envisioned the establishment of strict training schools, controlled by women, to teach the elements of health care that were no longer attended to by the rapidly specializing physician. They were pleased to be aided in their efforts by hospital administrators and doctors, who understood that the movement to upgrade and standardize nursing education would support their own plans for reforming medicine.
But the goals of the three groups, Reverby argues, were radically divergent. Hospital administrators realized that training schools attached to their own institutions could become sources of cheap and malleable labor. Doctors saw nursing education as a way of improving care in the hospital, but they opposed any move to bolster nurses' control of their own labor or to improve their scientific skills, arguing that nurses should remain submissive and nurturing. As hospital exigencies quickly came to dominate the decision-making process in the training schools, nursing educators lost control over admission standards, the quality of education, and the labor of students on the wards.
Which of the following best states the central idea of the passage?
1. Passage Analysis:
Progressive Passage Analysis
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| According to Susan Reverby's Ordered to Care, the most salient fact about the occupation of nursing has been its traditional conceptualization by both the public and medical professionals as women's work, a judgment that has had a dramatic impact both on the nature of the tasks nurses perform and on the status of the profession. | What it says: A researcher named Susan Reverby found that nursing has always been seen as "women's work" by everyone, and this view has greatly affected what nurses do and how they're viewed professionally. What it does: Introduces the main thesis and sets up the entire passage's argument Source/Type: Researcher's claim (Susan Reverby's findings) Connection to Previous Sentences: This is our starting point - no prior sentences to connect to Visualization: Think of nursing profession as having a label "Women's Work" that affects two things: 1) Daily job tasks, 2) Professional respect level Reading Strategy Insight: Main thesis clearly stated upfront - everything that follows will support this central claim about nursing being seen as "women's work" What We Know So Far: Nursing = seen as women's work = affects job tasks and status What We Don't Know Yet: How this view developed, specific examples, what impact it had |
| Reverby demonstrates how this ideology of nursing grew, not out of a belief in women's rights but from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century understandings of womanly character and duty. | What it says: This "women's work" idea didn't come from supporting women's rights, but from old ideas (1700s-1800s) about what women were "naturally" like and what they "should" do. What it does: Explains the historical origin of the ideology mentioned in sentence 1 Source/Type: Researcher's claim (Reverby's demonstration) Connection to Previous Sentences: • Sentence 1 told us: Nursing seen as "women's work" with big impact • NOW Sentence 2: Explains WHERE this "women's work" idea came from historically • This builds directly on sentence 1 by providing historical context Visualization: Timeline: 1700s-1800s → Ideas about "womanly duty" → Applied to nursing → Creates "women's work" label Reading Strategy Insight: Note the contrast: NOT from women's rights (progressive) but from traditional gender roles (restrictive) What We Know So Far: Nursing = women's work ideology from 1700s-1800s traditional gender views What We Don't Know Yet: Specific examples of how this played out in practice |
Why It's Wrong:
- The passage explicitly states the ideology grew "not out of a belief in women's rights but from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century understandings of womanly character and duty"
- This directly contradicts the passage's main point about traditional gender roles being the driving force
- The passage shows how women's rights were NOT the foundation of nursing ideology
Why It's Wrong:
- While conflicts occurred, they were not the root cause but rather a symptom of the deeper ideology problem
- The passage shows the ideology itself was the fundamental barrier, not just conflicts between groups
- This ignores the pre-1870 period when the same problems existed without these specific conflicts
Why It's Right:
- This directly captures the passage's main argument that traditional gender ideology created persistent barriers
- It encompasses both the historical development (18th-19th century ideas) and the ongoing impact (even after 1870)
- It explains why reform efforts failed – because the underlying ideological assumptions remained unchanged
Why It's Wrong:
- The passage doesn't suggest the curriculum was "too general" – doctors opposed nurses gaining MORE scientific skills
- Doctors' lack of recognition stemmed from wanting nurses to "remain submissive and nurturing," not curriculum issues
- This misses the broader gender ideology that affected all aspects of nursing, not just doctor-nurse relationships
Why It's Wrong:
- The passage clearly states that after 1870 "scientific and medical advances hastened the development of nursing as skilled paid labor"
- This contradicts the claim that advances had "little effect" – they changed the practice significantly
- The problem was that the ideology didn't change, not that the advances didn't affect practice