This thesis examines the attempt by the New Zealand Registered Nurses Association to enhance nursing's professional status and its involvement in industrial relations in the 1960s. It is asserted that because nursing was a female-dominated occupation with a strong service ethic it would be very difficult for the Association to achieve its goal. After a long struggle the Association did increase its professional status as well as becoming more like a trade union. The first part of the thesis examines the professionalisation of nursing with regard to education and public relations. The second part deals with the Association's activities in industrial relations and its attitudes towards unionism.