This report contains the three papers read to the King's Fund History of Nursing conference on 29 July 1983. The papers deal with widely different aspects of history but all demonstrate how politics and policy constrain and influence the structure and function of nursing and midwifery. The titles of the papers were : altruism is not enough : barriers in the development of nursing as a profession; from independent practitioner to team member : some aspects of the history of the midwifery profession; the hospital, the firm and the nurse.