A bit more Pomfrey (was Gender balance/strong women Madam Pomfrey in particular)

[Amanda Lewanski]

No: HPFGUIDX 15049

"Alexandra Y. Kwan" wrote:

> The stereotype has always been that the doctors are
> male and nurses female, because doctors are seen as
> more important than nurses.

No, the stereotype has been that way because until recently, the doctors
*were* mostly male and the nurses *were* mostly female. The perception
grew from the stereotype, not vice versa.

>  Although a school
> presumably doesn't need a doctor, by having the school
> nurse as female, the book is conforming to stereotypes
> that had been in our culture for at least half a
> century.

I think it might simply be that when the medical director at a school is
female, she'll tend to be called "school nurse." Pomfrey does
significantly more than your average school nurse. Most schools don't
have entire hospital wings. Most school nurses don't spit fire the way
she does--she's nothing less than didactic on her own turf--quite a
strong woman indeed, when she's speaking as a professional in her field.

And in the in-many-ways-quite-archaic world of wizards, "doctor" might
still be a term that is not medical. Or never used at all, since they do
not seem to have an educational system after Hogwarts. We call doctors
doctors because that's the title they get from their institutions after
advanced study. Any Ph.D. or J.D. is a doctorate. It's an educational
level, and the wizarding world thus far has not exhibited comparable
further formal education levels.

In fact, the wizarding world reminds me strongly (in the matter of
research and inquiry and "experts") of the great 'age of naturalists,'
the late eighteenth to late nineteenth centuries, when the contributions
of self-educated laymen were vital to several disciplines.

--Amanda


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