Available from UMI in association with The British Library. Requires signed TDF.

The aim of this study is to examine nurses as Chinese women as a step towards understanding Chinese women in present-day Taiwan. My hope is that its results may help in the understanding of woman's role and position in a changing oriental society, while also exposing at the same time other incompatability phenomena in the society due to culture implantation and conflict from the west.

To be more specific, the research is an attempt to examine the middle class women's life both at home as daughters, wives and mothers, and also in public as professional workers; to see whether the persistence of the traditional expectation of women influences or interferes with women's life today in general and that of nurses in particular. The hope is that it can explain some of the problems and dilemmas that the nursing profession faces today in Taiwan. Thus there are two aspects to this work: Chinese women and nurses.

The nursing profession was chosen as an example of middle and lower middle class women in Taiwan in this study for three reasons. First, because it stands at the intersection of west and east (a Chinese woman working in a imported western institution). Second, because it is an old occupation but a new profession. Third, because of its popularity in recent years as one of the most favourite and suitable occupations for young middle and lower middle class women in Taiwan (Lu 1980), although significantly, it involves close contact with men (doctors and patients) and the male body. It is assumed in this study that the problems faced by nurses probably represent a key instance of women's experience between her work and family life in present-day Taiwan. The problems encountered by the nursing profession could be explained by the problems of it being a woman's job in a changing Chinese society heightened by the particular character of the work. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).