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English 103

Amory Orchard

4/9/2017

Robyn Knip

Call the Midwife, Not a Feminist Movement

The historical drama of Call the Midwife is placed in the era of the 1950s to early 1960s

in Londons East End. The premise of the show is loosely based off the memoirs written by

Jennifer Worth, who sadly passed away before the first episode of the show aired in September

of 2012. While it started in Britain it has quite the splash over here in the United States. The

show is based around the main character Jenny and her many adventures with the other young

women and the nuns at Nonnatus House. These women faced incredible odds and hardships but

still throughout it all they find time for joy. While this show has gotten much acclaim, it has

gotten some blacklash; but even with that it has still been labeled by many as a must watch.

With the main focus being on women from many different backgrounds dealing with the many

social issues of the time, it is easy to see how the show not only embraces stereotypes of women

for this particular era, but it thrives. It is an excellent depiction of the quiet strength women had

both for themselves and each other.

As I was reading articles, looking for information I could use, I came across a New York

Times article written by Jennette Catsoulis called Call the Midwife Deserves more Respect for

its Depth and Daring. In this article Jennette states that, the program has mostly been denied
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the critical respect garnered by that flashier yet infinitely less audacious dive into Downtown

Abbey. Some of this is undoubtedly because of gender bias in the shows makeup and its appeal.

With mainly female stars, writers and director, it was conceived and produced by award-winning

playwright Heidi Thomas the granddaughter of a suffragist. When looking at the show as a

whole, you might be inclined to agree. It seems very female orientated. But I ask you to broaden

your horizons and take another look. This is a show about the struggles women face and how

they come together to support each other. Writer Caroline Frost states in her article, Does Call

the Midwife Fail the Sexism Test For Men?, found on the Huffington Post UK, Call the

Midwife is a resounding fail for the sexism test as far as men are concerned, then. In a period

drama about the rising social class of women, I disagree that there should be more men in the

spotlight, especially when the show deals with something so centrally feminine as birth and child

rearing. As stated by the character of Sister Evangelina in the first episode of the series, A man

in the room as a woman gives birth? How preposterous! The idea of a man in the room while a

woman gave birth was unheard of, not to mention the fact that the show is based around the

memoirs of Jennifer Worth, who lived with nuns for a majority of her life. This doesnt include

the fact that the job of being a midwife and a nurse were extremely demanding, it doesnt give

much room for one to be a socialite.

Moving on to a later portion of the article by Jennette Catsoulis, she states that, After

more than a decade of watching cold, alienated antiheros with thousand yard stares hijack our

television landscapes and critical plaudits, the shows warm communalism reminds us that being

human never mind a mother- is an experience thats much better when shared. This helps to

strengthen the argument about it being a show where the quiet strength of women prevails

overall. Throughout watching this show, you watch as mothers cling to one another when
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struggles come around, especially in birth or pregnancy in general. As noted in Season 2,

Episode 7, there is a woman who is an immigrant from Jamaica who is pregnant with her first

child. Due to her heritage and skin color she is looked down upon by the other women on her

block. We watch as she struggles, wishing she had someone to reach out to. Later we see one of

the other mothers almost take a significant fall, only to be saved by the Jamaican woman.

Forming an unlikely and tense friendship, the women go their separate ways. The significance is

revealed later on when the Jamaican woman goes into labor and the other woman rushes to her

side, others be damned; she stays with her and offers her comfort until help arrives. This is just

one of the many instances where the need other women face over shines personal needs, and may

reach out a helping hand. Stories of love and acceptance flood the show over and over, showing

how when it boils down to it, women stand by each other.

Another way this show excels at showing the stereotypes of women is being historically

accurate about the era in which these women are shown. In a scholarly article from the United

Kingdom about gender norms in the 1950s it states that femininity became less firmly tied to

motherhood, while work gradually became accepted as province of both men and women The

1950s is life after depression, war and major amounts of suffering. Due to these almost crisis

like times, many traditional view-points of gender norms were thrown out the window in order to

get the job done. During the war when men were sent away, the women left behind were forced

to take up jobs in typically masculine professions, mainly labor intense jobs such as welding and

making guns and bullets, in order to keep the war moving forward and toward an end. As an

affect to this issue, many women began to feel the freedom that having a job gave. Therefore,

when the men came back, many women found it harder and harder to go back to a life of simple

home making. The article above further states that, The sense of being working class had in the
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past been expressed through the male breadwinner ideal or the sanctified image of the working-

class mother. Crucial to this was the strict sense of sex segregation. In the 50s, class could no

longer easily be expressed in the same way because such stereotypes and segregation had less

purchase in a lived experience. Here the author states the fact very clearly. This was a time of

great gender change. The ideal of the men working and the women being at home were

becoming ideals of the past. In the new day and age both the men and the women had to work to

support their families. In the show you see this quite often; some women even hid their

pregnancies so that they wouldnt be forced to leave. Women worked gender appropriate jobs

such as typing or cutting hair, while men found the hard labor type jobs. Even then many could

barely make ends meet. The young girls who work as midwives enjoyed the freedoms of

working for themselves, even though working the jobs they do left little time for anything else.

So the show tackles the gender norms of work and family life in a way that is appropriate and

socially acceptable for the time.

While stating that the show has strong feminine appeals, I wouldnt go as far as stating is

has some overly feminine agenda. William Murchison summed up my thoughts well in his paper

titled, Call the Midwife A Must Watch, I do not see the show as feminist. I see feminism

as just another ism of our disordered time a slogan, an action agenda, causing us to forget

how we got here in the first place. It is important to remember that not everything needs to be a

cry for feminism, or a reason why we need to change. Overall the shows characters have

dynamism and the feeling of a normal person. The character Trixie suffers an alcohol addiction,

Jenny has a troubled past; even the nuns have their own quirks that give to the show and make it

feel more wholesome and real.

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Bringing this all together, Call the Midwife is a show that exemplifies the gender roles of

women in the 50s without making it seem as though it is a cry for change in the modern day and

age. Every character has a purpose, giving the show its overall dynamic and appeal. There is no

character that is static; they each learn and grow from each other. While it has gotten backlash

for having too much of a feminine mindset, the show is an excellent glimpse into what life

could have been like for women in this era. A statement from William Murchisons article sums

it up nicely, All of this, possibly, makes Call the Midwife seem more cosmological than down to

earth; a television show about decent people confronting, sometimes joyfully, sometimes in tears,

the mixed realities of our common life. It is in fact what it does. It is why I watch it. Therefore,

no matter what you may have read or heard, I implore you to give this show a chance and come

to watch it with an open mind. This show tackles difficult topics in an elegant way, and it is

wonderful to see a show be real and personal, without losing too much accuracy overall.
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Resources Used

3) Brooke, S. 2015. Gender and Working Class Identity in Britain During the 1950s.

Journal of Social History. Vol 34. Issue 4. Pp 773-795. Retrieved from

https://www.balliol.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/s._brooke_gender_and_working_class_identity_in

_britain_during_the_1950s_journal_of_social_history_vol_34._no.4_2001.pdf

2) Catsoulis, J. 2016, May 23. Call the Midwife Deserves more Respect for its Depth

and Daring. New York Times. Retrieved from

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/24/arts/television/call-the-midwife-deserves-more-respect-

for-its-depth-and-daring.html?_r=1

4) Frost, C. 2013, April 7. Call the Midwife Fails the Sexism Test For Men? The

Huffington Post UK. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/caroline-frost/call-the-

midwife-sexism-test-tv-review_b_2616860.html

1) Murchison, W. 2015. Call the Midwife: A Must Watch. The Human Life Review. Vol

42. Issue. 3 pp. 11-16.

5) Writer. Thomas, H. Executive Producer, Harris, P. & Thomas, H. (2012) Call the

Midwife. UK, A Neal Street Production

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