A Spreadsheet!

Oh World Citizens, I am SUCH a fan of emails that treat my Betty-obsession like a study written up for the Lancet. Our dear Betty Anonymous had a question and then dug into it like a treacle tart. Here are her conclusions:

We're ready to learn, Professor.

What are the Ratios in the Canon: RDD+Nurse, RBD+Nurse, RDD+Non-Nurse,
RBD+Non-Nurse?

Over on our Facebook page, Betty Sutapa said it seemed to her "that the RDDs mostly encounter
heroines from the nursing profession whereas RBDs mostly encounter heroines from non-nursing
professions/stay-at-home heroines". And she wanted to know if her perception was correct.

Taking a leaf out of Betty van den Betsy’s book, I’ve made my business to find out the exact numbers,
which I couldn’t have done without her awesome spreadsheet: 

79 Nurses:
A Neels Database-to-Be

This spreadsheet will leave you breathless. It really will.

RESULTS:

Nurse/RDD — 70 couples

Nurse/RBD — 5 couples  

Heidelberg Wedding

Never Say Goodbye

Once for All Time

Romantic Encounter

Summer Idyll

Nurse/Non-Medical Hero — 2 couples

Heaven around the Corner

Judith

Judith willed herself to find competency in a man who didn't know how to suture.

Non-Nurse/RDD — 22 couples

Non-Nurse/RBD — 32 couples

Non-Nurse/ Non-Medical Hero — 4 couples

All Else Confusion

A Girl to Love

Roses and Champagne

Year’s Happy Ending

135 STORIES, in total:

She totted up the sums on the underside of her crisp apron.

Of the heroines 77 are nurses, 58 are not.

On the heroes‘ side, we have 92 RDDs, 37 RBDs, and 6 Non-Medical men.

NURSES

In 70 novels, or ~52% of the Canon, Nurses are paired with RDDs.

That means 76% of the RDDs marry Nurses.

Nurses paired with RBDs are to be found in 5 novels only, or ~4%. 

That’s only 13.5% of the RBDs.

NON-NURSES

22 of the couples, or ~16%, are pairings of RDDs and Non-Nurses.

That’s 24% of the RDDs.

In 32 stories, or ~24% of The Great Betty’s oeuvre, RBDs end up marrying Non-Nurses. 

That’s 86.5% of the RBDs!

NON-MEDICAL HEROES

Not every man is a doctor.

In 2 stories only, or ~1.5%, do we have Nurses marrying Non-Medical Heroes.

And in 4 stories, almost 3% of the Canon, Non-Nurses marry Non-Medical Heroes.

That means exactly ⅓ of the Non-Medical Heroes marry nurses, ⅔ of the Non-Medical Heroes end up married to Non-Nurses.

I counted student nurses as nurses.

Nanny by Chance: non-nurse/short stint as student nurse/non-nurse — I counted her as a non-nurse.

Among the non-nurses, we have a physiotherapist, a heroine who spent part of the novel working as
an orderly at a hospital, one who jobbed on a geriatric ward, and a couple of nurse’s aids.