The transfer of nursing education to the university sector from the hospital setting was the result of long-time efforts by leaders in Australian nursing, notably, pioneer nurse educator Merle Parkes. It was opposed by the medical hierarchy who viewed the development of highly trained professional nurses as a threat to their monopoly on the delivery of high-level health care. Many nurses themselves opposed the transfer on the grounds that "hands on experience in hospitals" would be lost. One underlying cause of the opposition was that of societal views toward appropriate gender roles: nursing as a "female" profession and medicine as a "male" profession.ceo