Nursing became the professional expression of the womanly qualities of kindliness, motherliness and sensitivity. Sick, sometimes battered children, could find assistance in the arms of female nurses. The success or failure of reformers' and feminists' efforts to improve the health of the community was often symbolized by the number and distribution of public health nurses who used the hospital as their base of operations. Nursing, like the vote, was one way of bringing women's influence to bear on the ills of society.
