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This article seeks to confront gender norms in the social protection professional sector. The authors chose to analyse gender-specific skills required to be a midwife and to examine the arrival of men in the profession (possible since 1982), assessing their ability to de-naturalise “feminine qualities” which appear as inherent to the trade. In this respect, the case of midwives is particularly relevant as it is unique. One might have assumed, as the profession opened up to men, that the latter would foster change ; nonetheless, a relative inertia of the “feminine” model, which still operates as a core value among midwives, as well as the small number of men, point to a more complex situation. Only younger midwives, who are more focused on an objective definition of skills, appear to be able to trigger a mutation.