View source for Florence Nightingale

== Relationships ==
[[File:Florence Nightingale by Charles Staal, engraved by G. H. Mote.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Florence Nightingale by Charles Staal, engraved by G. H. Mote, used in [[Mary Cowden Clarke]]'s ''Florence Nightingale'' (1857)]]

Although much of Nightingale's work improved the lot of women everywhere, Nightingale believed that women craved [[sympathy]] and were not as capable as men.{{efn|In an 1861 letter Nightingale wrote, "''Women have no sympathy.'' ... Women crave for being loved, not for loving. They scream out at you for sympathy all day long, they are incapable of giving any in return, for they cannot remember your affairs long enough to do so. ... They cannot state a fact accurately to another, nor can that other attend to it accurately enough for it to become information."<ref>published in {{Gutenberg |no=40058 |name=The Life of Florence Nightingale vol. 2 of 2 by Edward Tyas Cook |bullet=none |pages=pp. 14–17}}</ref>}} She criticised early women's rights activists for decrying an alleged lack of careers for women at the same time that lucrative medical positions, under the supervision of Nightingale and others, went perpetually unfilled.{{efn|In the same 1861 letter she wrote, "It makes me mad, the Women's Rights talk about 'the want of a field' for them – when I would gladly give £500 a year for a Woman secretary. And two English Lady superintendents have told me the same thing. And we can't get ''one''&nbsp;..."<ref>{{Gutenberg|no=40058|name=available|bullet=none}}</ref>}} She preferred the friendship of powerful men, insisting they had done more than women to help her attain her goals, writing: "I have never found one woman who has altered her life by one iota for me or my opinions."<ref>The same 1861 letter published in {{Gutenberg |no=40058 |name=The Life of Florence Nightingale vol. 2 of 2 by Edward Tyas Cook |bullet=none |pages=pp. 14–17}} <!-- | title = The Life of Florence Nightingale, vol 2: 1862–1910 | author1 = Cook | first1 = Sir Edward Tyas | year = 1914 --></ref><ref name="NightingaleonWomen">{{cite book |author=Nightingale, Florence |editor=McDonald, Lynn |title=Florence Nightingale on Women, Medicine, Midwifery and Prostitution |pages=7, 48–49, 414 |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-88920-466-9 |publisher=[[Wilfrid Laurier University Press]]}}</ref> She often referred to herself as, for example, "a man of action" and "a man of business".<ref>Stark, Myra. "Florence Nightingale's Cassandra". The Feminist Press, 1979, p. 17.</ref>

However, she did have several important and long-lasting friendships with women. Later in life, she kept up a prolonged correspondence with Irish nun [[Mary Clare Moore]], with whom she had worked in Crimea.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ourladyofmercy.org.uk |title=Institute of Our Lady of Mercy, Great Britain |publisher=Ourladyofmercy.org.uk |date=8 December 2009 |access-date=13 March 2010 |archive-date=21 February 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100221101027/http://www.ourladyofmercy.org.uk/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Her most beloved confidante was [[Mary Elizabeth Mohl|Mary Clarke]], an Englishwoman she met in Paris in 1837 and kept in touch with throughout her life.<ref>Cannadine, David. "Ever Yours, Florence Nightingale: Selected Letters." ''The New Republic''. 203.7 (13 August 1990): 38–42.</ref>

Some scholars of Nightingale's life believe that she remained chaste for her entire life, perhaps because she felt a religious calling to her career.<ref>Dossey, Barbara Montgomery. ''Florence Nightingale: Mystic, Visionary, Reformer''. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 1999.</ref>