Dear James

May I suggest you also consider and perhaps challenge the quite widespread
assumption that 'midwife' refers to a job/activity of being with a woman?
While there is no doubt that 'mid' means 'with' and 'wife' indicates a
woman, I have not found evidence that the 'wife' is the object of the
activity of being 'with'. On the contrary, all similar words, such as
'fishwife', 'alewife', 'housewife', etc, are occupational terms describing a
woman with a particular skill. The strong inference is that the word
'midwife' means a woman who has the skill of 'being with' - NOT a
gender-neutral person who is 'with' a woman.

This of course brings in turn the challenge that a male midwife takes on an
occupational role name that actually describes a woman, in the same way that
women in the past took on the roles of postman, milkman, policeman,
houseman, etc, before these were (mostly) changed to gender-neutral terms.

Good luck!

Elizabeth

----- Original Message -----
From: "James Harris" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "(Elizabeth Duff)" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, December 09, 2004 11:33 AM
Subject: Male Midwives


> Hi! My name is James and I am a third year DE Midwifery Student at City
> University.
>
> I am currently undertaking a literature review into the impact of male
> midwives on the profession, and would be greatful for any help or research
> pointers.
>
> I aim to write the piece from a sociological, feministic perspective,
> looking at
>
> Can a man be as with woman as a woman?
> Have male midwives changed the profession in any way?
> Why do men enter the profession?
> The Treatment of male midwives.
>
> As well as any studys you could recomend, it would be interesting to get
> your views on the subject, although this will not be included in the
> research.
>
> Can a man be as "with-woman" as a woman?
>
> Many thanks for your help in this matter.