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Women's Career Success and Work–life Adaptations in the Accountancy and Medical Professions in Britain
Author(s) -
Crompton Rosemary,
Lyonette Clare
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
gender, work and organization
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.159
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1468-0432
pISSN - 0968-6673
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0432.2009.00511.x
Subject(s) - feminization (sociology) , work (physics) , specialty , limiting , career development , psychology , gender studies , political science , sociology , social psychology , mechanical engineering , engineering , psychiatry
This article examines gendered career paths in two feminizing and highly qualified professions. Quantitative data show that in medicine the profession is internally segregated by sex, as women tend to opt for the family friendly but clinically inferior specialty of general practice. In accountancy internal segregation by sex is considerably less evident but women fail to rise through organizational hierarchies. Qualitative interviews with qualified doctors and accountants suggest that sex discrimination is to some extent still an issue but that the major factor underlying these different gendered career trajectories is that women still retain the major responsibility for domestic work and caring. They also suggest that doctors have been able to exercise more control over their working hours than accountants and that even when accountants work part‐time, they work longer hours than contracted. Part‐time work is also seen as seriously career‐limiting. In our conclusions, we briefly examine the gender equality implications of these contrasting self‐regulated and market‐driven adaptations to occupational feminization.