The diversity debate: is midwifery higher education addressing the challenges of systemic racism?

Abstract

This series of six articles is inspired by themes arising from the Royal College of Midwives State of Midwifery Education report. The series explores the current landscape and challenges in educating the future midwifery workforce, particularly those that pertain to the higher education workforce. This third article highlights the lack of global majority midwifery academics, and charts the decisions and experiences of global majority applicants and students in midwifery higher education. The barriers these students face include systemic and individual racism. These experiences likely impact global majority midwives choosing academic careers, yet greater diversity and representation is needed in the education workforce. This article explores how this might be achieved by examining sources of systemic racism and how to decolonise midwifery curricula in order to tackle inequality not just for educators and professionals, but for women in midwifery care.