interview.bandinterview.bandNancy MacMillan Interview, History 150 Spring 2016, Conducted by Kelsey MacMillan, Women in the Work Force- Nursing, March 22, 2016
A. Overview of Interview Process:
This interview was conducted over the phone and recorded using Garage Band on my MacBook Air. I talked to my RA and the girls in my hall to schedule a time where I could go in the study lounge alone to ensure that my recording of the interview was clear and could be heard well. I chose not to edit my interview at all because it went fairly smoothly. There were a couple of laughs, but I felt that they added character and did not take away from the answers. There was also a lot of back and forth talking rather than just questions 1-10, so if I edited the interview too much it wouldn’t make a lot of sense. Setting up the interview was slightly difficult because my grandmother is actually on vacation right now, but we found a time that worked for both of our schedules.
B. Brief Biography:
Nancy MacMillan, my grandmother, lives in North Andover, MA with her husband Dr. Francis P. MacMillan. Her parents came to America from Italy before she was born. She is a mother of five children who all live close by. She worked as a nurse before she became a stay at home mother at Hospitals in New York and Massachusetts. She experienced both rolls as a woman- receiving a degree from Boston College, working a full time job, and being a stay at home mom. I chose to interview my grandmother because she was the perfect example of a working woman in a time where women weren’t so accepted in the work field.
C. Women in the Work Field:
I chose this topic for my interview because I thought it would be interesting to hear about experiences of a woman who saw women’s rights progress first hand. During the fifties, women were generally seen as a mother and a wife, rather than a woman. They were expected to clean, cook, and take care of the children. While my grandmother was a wife and a mom, she was also a nurse. During the fifties, women really started to try to shed the image of them only being useful for cooking and cleaning, and my grandmother helped do this by working as a nurse. I thought it would be interesting to hear a first hand account of what it was like to work as a women when it wasn’t generally accepted among all people.
D. Interview Transcription:
KM: This is Kelsey MacMillan I’m interviewing my Grandmother, Nancy MacMillan, she was a nurse, are you okay with me sharing the interview with my class?
NM: Yes, I am.
KM: Okay, lets get started. So, the first question is how many years did you work as a nurse and what hospitals did you work at?
NM: Hm, lets see, um, I probably worked um two and a half years and I worked at um the Veterans Hospital in Jamaica Plains, uh, for about a year, then Veterans Hospital in New York City for a couple of months, and then I transferred to the uh City Hospital on First Ave in New York because the- I wasn’t too happy at the VA there it was different than the one in Boston. So I worked in the clinic there which I enjoyed.
KM: Okay- [cut off]
NM: And then I stayed there until my husband graduated [Medical School] which was in June and then I transferred to the Whitten Hospital in Everett [Massachusetts] where I worked as an IV nurse for about six or seven months and they told me If I didn’t quit they’d fire me because I was very very pregnant at the time.
KM: Oh my gosh, and were you in New York because Papa [my grandfather, Dr. Frank MacMillan] was at Med School?
NM: Yes, that’s the reason.
KM: Okay. And were you treated differently than men while working in a Hospital setting?
NM: No not at all. Um..I felt very good about working there. The doctors treated me okay; the nurses treated me okay. In fact, the supervisor wanted me to go on for my Masters [degree] but I was in no condition to do that because of my husbands education, and we were moving back to Boston.
KM: Right- and were you expected to quit your job when you started a family? Sounds like you are going to say yes from your previous answers [laughter].
NM: [Laugher] Well as soon as I got pregnant they wanted me to quit. And then I ended up getting pregnant again very quickly so there was no way I could go back to work. I had two kids within two years and then a break, then I had my third kid and the twins. So I didn’t go back to work until my oldest kid was sixteen and then I just filled in at different doctor’s offices.
KM: Okay- and when you attended Boston College what did you think the male to female ration was in your class?
NM: Well I was in the Nursing Program and we did not have any men in the class.
KM: And did you ever want to pursue a different career in the medical field; or did you become a nurse because it was the stereotypical career for a woman [at that time]?
NM: Oh well I actually started out in education and um and I realized that I really didn’t like to get before a group and speak so I decided that maybe I would be better off as a nurse. I had the interest in nursing but I figured that the sciences were going to be difficult and I really didn’t want to put all of my “oomph” into it but then I realized it was necessary because I wouldn’t have made it as a teacher [laughter].
KM: And were there female doctors while you were a nurse and were there any male nurses while you were a nurse or was it mostly male doctors and female nurses?
NM: Uh, yes there were mainly male doctors but there were a few female physicians- and they were pretty good.
KM: And were there any male nurses? Or were the nurses mostly women?
NM: Uh- I knew a male nurse but he didn’t work at the Hospital he worked at the Lawrence [unintelligible] in Everett.
KM: So there were none in your work setting?
NM: Uh there were a couple in the VA hospital but none when I went into the city Hospital- there weren’t any male nurses that I ran into.
KM: Okay- So working in that time setting and seeing how women are treated in the work force today, how do you feel about conditions for women in the work place today?
NM: I bet it’s a lot better- but I didn’t have any problems at the time.
KM: And you never felt oppressed or victimized because of your sex?
[Some confusion and clarification of question]
NM: Uh no not really.
KM: And was your husband, being a doctor, supportive of your career?
NM: Oh definitely, I helped put him through school [laughter].
KM: [Laughter] Okay, well thank you very much for the interview.
NM: Well thank you, it was interesting.
Conclusion: My interview with my grandmother went fairly smoothly. I had to technological errors and the only thing that we struggled with was finding a time to do the interview. My grandmother was very easy going about the interview and was happy to allow me to share the transcription with my class. It felt a little awkward speaking while being recorded, and I do think that effected the interview on both ends. I felt that I couldn’t be as conversational and easy going during conversation with my grandmother, and I think she felt that she couldn’t expand on certain questions because she was being interviewed and she knew there were more questions to come. In turn, I think this made some of her answers to my questions shorter with less content. Overall, for a first experience with oral history, I think this interview went pretty well and I am happy with the results.