Nursing and Empire [eBook - Biblioboard] : Gendered Labor and Migration from India to the United States

In this rich interdisciplinary study, Sujani Reddy examines the consequential lives of Indian nurses whose careers have unfolded in the contexts of empire, migration, familial relations, race, and gender. As Reddy shows, the nursing profession developed in India against a complex backdrop of British and U.S. imperialism. After World War II, facing limited vocational options at home, a growing number of female nurses migrated from India to the United States during the Cold War. Complicating the long-held view of Indian women as passive participants in the movement of skilled labor in this period, Reddy demonstrates how these "women in the lead" pursued new opportunities afforded by their mobility. At the same time, Indian nurses also confronted stigmas based on the nature of their "women's work," the religious and caste differences within the migrant community, and the racial and gender hierarchies of the United States. Drawing on extensive archival research and compelling life-history interviews, Reddy redraws the map of gender and labor history, suggesting how powerful global forces have played out in the personal and working lives of professional Indian women. Nursing And Empire Draws On Archival Research And Life History Interviews To Focus On The Migration And Settlement Of The Indian Nurses Who Formed The First Female Dominated Migration Pattern From India To The United States During The Cold War. Reddy Argues That This Movement Must Be Understood As Part Of The Shifts Within Anglo-american Capitalist Imperialism That Have Tied The Development Of Nursing Labor In India To Processes Of U.s. Social Formation Since The Nineteenth Century. The Book Thus Begins With The Movement Of Us Based Single Female Protestant Medical Missionaries To India In The Nineteenth Century And Then Details The Remaking Of The Colonial Medical Mission Through The Jim Crow Segregation And “open Door Imperialism” Of The Rockefeller Foundation Between World Wars I And Ii. Framed Within This Context, Reddy Positions Indian Nurse Immigration As One Outcome Of Shifts Within The International Division Of Nursing Labor At The Onset Of The American Century. Throughout This Historical Sweep, Nursing And Empire Also Contains A Detailed Analysis Of The Shifting Stigmatization And Rising Status Of Indian Nursing Labor Through Hierarchies Of Race, Class, Caste, Gender, Sexuality, And Religion. The Result Is An Immigration Study That Examines The Position Of Indian Nurses Within Labor Markets As Well As Inside And Outside Of Kinship Networks And Variously Constructed Communities. Feminizing The Christian Medical Mission -- Searching For Salome -- Reconstructing The Imperial Nation -- Remaking Mother India -- From Kerala To America -- Putting The Foreign In Nurse Im/migration -- Indian Nurses Navigate The U.s. Division Of Nursing Labor -- Immigration And The Return Of The Woman Question. Sujani K. Reddy. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.