Gender Justice

Nurses at march hold signs "Union Women are Powerful Women"

Registered nurses know that gender justice is fundamental to our ability to effectively advocate for patients, demand safe workplaces, and build healthy unions. Social well-being depends on care work that has historically been performed by women and gender-oppressed people. Nurses’ fight for gender justice is a fight for equity of opportunity, conditions, safety, collectivity, health, and dignity for all people regardless of gender. Read more ».

Striking women workers in 1909

International Working Women’s Day honors a union on strike

International Women’s Day is important. But to truly honor this day and its goals, we must revisit the story of International Working Women’s Day, of thousands of fed-up workers boiling over into the streets of New York. We need days like this to remind ourselves to celebrate what we’ve accomplished and still make an honest assessment of what oppresses us.

Hands holding various pride flags

LGBTQI+ health equity booklet

Learn about gender terms, health disparities and health determinants in sexual and gender minorities, and more.

Blog

Group of nurses in march holding signs "Union women are powerful women"

We won’t let them ban our stories

When future students read about the Covid-19 pandemic, nurses want our stories to be emblazoned on those pages. We want our grandchildren to understand the righteous anger we felt, rushing between far too many patients at once — some of them our own dying colleagues — while our employers cut corners on staffing and posted record profits.
Graphic of pride flag colored raised fists

For Pride Month, trans and non-binary nurses share the power of solidarity

This Pride Month, National Nurses United is honored to celebrate the history of organized, collective resistance embodied in the LGBTQIA+ liberation movement.
Mother holding baby on her shoulder

Honoring Mothers Day: In pursuit of reproductive health care justice

The grief of watching eight of her children die before they reached age 7 led Ann Reeves Jarvis to reach out to other women in her poor Appalachian community in the 1850s to organize mothers’ clubs

Videos

NNU celebrates pride month

Hear from NNU nurses on the meaning of Pride Month, the achievements of the LGBTQIA+ communities, and solidarity in the face of current attacks on their health care.

With the help of her union, Dara is fighting for gender-affirming care at her facility

National Nurses United is proud to share this story from nurse-member Dara Tep, RN, and her colleagues.

All gender justice videos

Press releases

The front of the US Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C.

National Nurses United condemns Supreme Court decisions on affirmative action, student loan forgiveness, LGBTQIA+ discrimination

This Supreme Court actively promotes inequality, oppression, and discrimination. As nurses, we are advocates for our patients, communities, and ourselves.
Large group of people holding Stop Abortion Bans Rally in St. Paul, Minnesota

Nurses applaud Supreme Court decision rejecting restrictions on abortion pill access as Republicans continue class war on trans health care, gender justice

National Nurses United applauds the Supreme Court’s decision to reject restrictions on access to Mifepristone, commonly known as the abortion pill.
Many nurses in front of capitol building holding banner "National Nurses United: The National Voice for Direct-Care RNs"

Nurses condemn new Florida bill as sweeping attack on higher education

NNU today urged the rejection of a new Florida bill intended to ban funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and eliminate majors focused on the study of race and gender in Florida colleges and universities calling it an attack on students of color, women, and access for all students to essential curriculum in higher education.
Large group of nurses at US capitol, NNU logo

National Nurses United condemns deadly violence and rightwing groups targeting trans and LGBTQ+ patients and community 

As advocates for patients and a just, healthy society, the registered nurses of National Nurses United mourn in solidarity with our LGBTQ+ siblings targeted in Saturday’s deadly Colorado Springs shooting.
All gender justice press releases