Nursing Experts, Hygienic Modernity, and Nation Building: The Case of Nursing in Ethiopia in the Post-Colonial Era.

Abstract

This is a tale in three parts. It begins with an exploration of the story of Princess Tsahai, daughter of Haile Selassie, and the highly successful British campaign led by suffragette E. Sylvia Pankhurst to bring British-style nursing and medicine to Ethiopia in the 1940s and 1950s. Second, it examines the role of foreign women, most notably Swedish missionary nurses, in building health services and nursing capacity in the country. Finally, it examines the way in which nursing brought together gendered notions of expertise and geopolitical pressures to redefine expectations for Ethiopian women as citizens of the new nation-state.