ABSTRACT
Nursing, at least in the United States, traditionally was not a well paying profession, primarily because it was dominated by women, and women in America have always earned less than men. Anti-discriminatory legislation and the growing efforts to achieve equal pay for equal work may lessen the gap between men and women, although women still remain at the lower end of the pay scales. Nurses regarded themselves as professionals and it was part of the inculcated rhetoric of nursing during much of the twentieth century that professionals did not strike or agitate for better working conditions. Physicians and dentists were also professionals, but since most of them were self-employed, they could simply raise their fees and their income by group action. In 1962, economic security efforts received an important boost when President Kennedy issued an executive order establishing collective bargaining as a right for federal employees.
