From gender-segregated to gender-inclusive deacon education in 1970s Norway: Impacts on professional identity

Abstract

This article explores the gendered history of Norwegian deacon education. We look at the case of the Deacons’ Home (Diakonhjemmet) in Oslo, established in 1890 to train male nurse deacons. The aim was that they would complement female deaconesses’ work with their physical strength and male character traits. 1968 marked a turning point for gender-segregated training, as the deacon programme was opened to women. We ask how this event affected the male professional deacon identity. The article finds that the institution’s nurturing of deacon masculinity until the early 1960s vanished over the next decade, marked by student uprisings, professionalisation and reforms in the Church of Norway. Despite scattered protests, gender-inclusive training and a fusion of gendered professional titles were necessary for the Deacons’ Home programme to survive in Norwegian higher education and the labour market. At the same time, professional identity markers were gradually lost during this process.