"akusherka" as insult?

[J F Levin]

At 03:11 PM 7/31/2010, you wrote:
>Dear Colleagues,
>
>In his diaries from the late teens to the early 1920s, when Kornei
>Chukovskii is particularly frustrated by female bureaucrats in the Petrograd
>cultural administration, he calls them "akusherki." I've looked up the term
>in several dictionaries, and the most I can find is "midwife" ("zhenshchina
>so srednim meditsinskim obrazovaniem, imeiushchaia pravo samostoiatel'no
>okazyvat' pomoshch' pri rodakh").
>
>If anyone can explain why Chukovskii cast the term as an aspersion, I'd be
>grateful for the enlightenment.
>
>With thanks in advance,
>
>Margarita

A friend once said I had the soul of a petit fonctionnaire.
I think this was not a devastating insult, just petit bureaucrat.
A midwife is not a doctor but might think she is and try to act like one...
Jules Levin

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