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How did early nursing schools reinforce the idea that nursing was women's work?

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A young doctor or nurse uses a blood pressure cuff and stethoscope to measure the blood pressure of an elderly man seated at a clinic office desk. — Nursing A nurse uses a sphygmomanometer to check a patient's blood pressure.

Early nursing schools reinforced the perception of nursing as "women's work" primarily through the structure of their hospital-based training models. By establishing these schools within hospitals, institutions created a system where students provided years of skilled, free labor in exchange for instruction.1

This model solidified the cultural stereotype of nursing as a female profession because only a very small number of hospitals provided training that maintained men's traditional roles in nursing. Furthermore, because nursing was historically viewed as an extension of domestic care—which was traditionally the responsibility of women—the professionalization of the field through these schools largely excluded men and cemented the association between nursing and women. While this shift provided a respectable career path for women who had few other options, it simultaneously institutionalized gender segregation within the health care system.1