As we move toward International Women’s day on March 8th our thoughts are drawn to the pressures women and midwives are facing globally. We can be grateful for the opportunities and freedom of choice women have in the UK, despite current imperfections. Dr Alys Einion, midwife and Senior Lecturer for Student Support at the University of Dundee, addresses the history of women in academia and midwifery, pointing to a need for more equity.
Recently I came across a letter written by a suffragette that was a key element in the movement to secure women’s access to higher education. Sophia Jex-Blake, who was one of the first women to register as a doctor in the UK, wrote and co-signed the letter which ultimately led to the UK’s first ever degree level certificate for women, at the University of St Andrews. Requesting admission to medical degrees, the letter did not succeed but its impact eventually led to the creation of the LLA diploma in 1876, the first of its kind that gave thousands of women across the world access to a University education. There is, therefore, a direct link between the work of this early activist, later advocates for women’s autonomy in childbearing, and the fact that midwives (and nurses) are now mostly degree-educated by default.
I qualified as a midwife in 1998, on one of only two (at the time) BSc (Hons) Midwifery pre-registration programmes. I knew that one day I would want to go on and contribute to developing my profession, through research and through education, and complete a PhD. I was following in a wake of the few midwives who were blazing a trail in research and higher education. But there were (and are, amazingly) detractors who believe midwives should focus on practice, not academia. The negative press midwives currently receive is not the reality of midwifery practice, but a product of a system that oppresses mothers and birthing people, and also oppresses midwives who speak up against it. It is that system which fails mothers, and demands that midwives sacrifice themselves with unrealistic working hours and impossible working conditions.
March is Women’s History Month, and March 8th is International Women’s Day, whilst 31st March is Transgender Visibility Day, all significant reminders of the ongoing fight for equity, justice and inclusion, and all highly important to us as midwives and birthworkers. It’s a prime opportunity to build on the lessons of the past, and keep reclaiming and revisioning our future – a future in which midwives and service users of all backgrounds and identities are valued, respected, and celebrated, women and birthing people’s rights are fully protected and supported, and the care we provide, evidence and teach is grounded in the core philosophy of person-centred practice and true equity. We can only do this if the profession of midwifery is recognised as an advanced clinical and academic discipline, bodily and lived experience and knowledge is fully respected and valued, and research is driven and co-created by midwives, colleagues and parents.
The history of women’s higher education teaches us that midwives should advocate more strongly than ever for our distinctiveness as a profession that supports women’s health and autonomy, and to use our status to build a more realistic and practice-oriented evidence base that supports that core philosophy. The physiology of the birthing body, the autonomy, rights and experience of the mother/parent, the context in which pregnancy, birth and motherhood takes place, all of these are the purview of midwives. Understanding the impact of medical intervention, both short and long term, is also our purview, because we come to this from the perspective of the women we serve. We are, and always have been, experts in pregnancy and birth.
Over 140 years ago, women advocated for the right to be admitted to University. Perhaps now, more than ever, midwives should fight for a new academia of social justice and epistemic equity for women and parents, crafting an evidence map in which our wisdom and skill sit hand in hand with the lived wisdom of childbearing. Epistemic equity for all.
Dr Alys Einion, FRCM, SFHEA
Senior Lecturer Student Support, Senior Adviser of Studies, EDI Lead
School of Health Sciences, University of Dundee
March 2026