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History of male midwifery in Iceland
| I examine the history of male midwifery in Iceland and the development of gender views within the profession from 1776 when the first Icelandic man graduated as a midwife in Iceland, to 1933 when the Icelandic midwives’ profession gained state approval as an exclusively female profession. Following such approval, only women educated at approved midwifery schools were permitted to work as midwives in Iceland.
In Iceland, as elsewhere, there are particular gender views regarding the profession of midwifery. I attempt to identify the particular features of the Icelandic health care system that resulted in the development of female professional midwives, and why men were denied access to the profession. Could it have been based on ideas formed by the growing middle class that the work of a midwife was an extension of typically feminine characteristics (gender) and that men should, therefore, be barred from the profession? The question will be answered by examining the work of male midwives in the latter part of the Age of Enlightenment.
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