This module has been taken down for review and is not currently available

As midwives, we meet women from a variety of different backgrounds, educational levels, ethnic origins and world views, and each of the women we meet has a unique perspective on childbearing and their birth experience. These factors influence our experience of culture and society. Whether we are male or female ourselves, we work in an environment where the majority of our colleagues are female, as well as caring for women. This combination gives us a unique place in the lives of women across the country.

The purpose of this module is to encourage you to think more deeply about the lives of the women that you meet during the course of your work. It can not give you a definitive version of the truth as all the women you meet, whether you are caring for them, or whether they are your colleagues, they will face very different challenges and life experiences. This module hopes to give you some insight into the challenges that they face.

This module will begin by asking you to reflect on your own experience and ‘world view’ (whether you are male or female), and get you to think about how this might differ to those of women you have recently cared for. It will then guide you through some reading and resources on some key areas that influence this. Finally it will look at some key sociological concepts that help to influence women’s perception of society, and society’s perception of women.

By the end of this module, participants will be able to:

• Reflect on the current position of women in society
• Become familiar with some common sociological arguments relating to feminism
• Consider the impact of women’s position in society as it relates to your own practice