This chapter explores how nursing and midwifery education remain gendered professions, with women dominating the workforce yet facing barriers to leadership and academic recognition. Despite professionalisation, societal expectations continue to position these roles as ‘women’s work,’ reinforcing patriarchal hierarchies that limit career progression.

Historical analysis highlights how nursing and midwifery evolved from informal caregiving roles to regulated professions while remaining subordinate to male-dominated medical fields. The transition to degree-level education has sparked debates over whether academic training undermines traditional caring responsibilities. The chapter examines how structural inequalities, including the sticky floor and glass ceiling, prevent women from advancing into senior roles in both healthcare and academia.

The chapter calls for structural and cultural change to address these inequalities. A feminist re-examination of nursing and midwifery education is needed to ensure women are not just central to healthcare but also hold decision-making power.
Using Acker’s Theory of Gendered Organisation, the chapter examines the transition from clinical practice to academia, where nursing and midwifery lecturers reform their professional identity, whilst providing much of the same emotional labour with students as they may have done with patients and women in clinical roles. It questions whether nursing and midwifery education are distinct from other academic fields due to the regulatory and pastoral demands arising from practice exposure. By addressing these tensions, the chapter calls for systemic changes, improved student and educator support and better resource allocation to bridge the divide between academia and clinical practice.
This chapter situates the importance of this book within a broader political and economic context, addressing the impact of neoliberal marketisation on higher education and healthcare, the casualisation of the (largely female) workforce, and the growing rollback of women’s rights globally. We explore the intersections of gender, race, and class in shaping professional experiences before acknowledging our own positionalities and the challenges of curating diverse perspectives while striving for authenticity and cohesion.