The objectives of this social-historical study were to describe the circumstances of the mobilization and of the demobilization of Brazilian nurses who acted in the Second World War, as well as to discuss the symbolic efficiency of their participation in the military field. Written documents collected in the historical civil and military archives of Rio de Janeiro; an interview carried out with a nurse who acted in the Expeditionary Brazilian Force; and photography from the Expeditionary Brazilian Force's Library were used as sources of data. The findings, classified, analyzed, and contextualized within the Social World Theory of Pierre Bourdieu, evidenced that female participation in the war in the condition of military nurses at the time which represented the occupation of a space ratified by power delegates contributed to consecrate women's insertion into public spaces previously dedicated to men, even in the rearguard.
Nursing; History of nursing; Military nursing; World War II
