title: The campaigns for men to become midwives in the 1970s.
abstract: The oral testimony of forty men entering nursing (1950-2000) and twenty men entering midwifery (1970-2000) in Australia is littered with descriptions of gender discrimination. Men identify many of the barriers they encountered entering a female dominated profession. The Nurses' Registration Act in the States of Victoria (1958) and Tasmania (1952) explicitly stated no male could be registered as a midwife and this paper focuses on the personal accounts of three men (1974-1976) to change this legal impediment. In twenty-first century Australia the percentage of male midwives, like many countries around the world, remains very small, and depending on the state or territory of Australia is between 1 to 2.7 percent.
authors.affiliation: La Trobe University.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pittman
authors.forename: Les
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fitzgerald
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health; D001315:Australia; D005260:Female; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008880:Midwifery / Q000266:history* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000639:trends; D009721:Nurse Midwives / Q000266:history* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000639:trends; D009727:Nurses, Male / Q000266:history* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000639:trends; D011287:Prejudice