Negotiating Professionalism

Sociological research on the professions studies the public workplace and the ways in which task, organizational, and institutional arrangements of select occupations coalesce to secure expertise to work autonomously. The authors argue that a neat public/private divide does not, however, actually fit professional practice. Rather, the time demands of professional tasks are open-ended, and underscoring this practice, organizational policies do not compensate for extended professional hours. To ensure the viability of this task-organizational arrangement, professions require an institutional system of social capital or release from the time demands of private obligations. Using data about allocation of time from a study of self-employed professionals, the authors demonstrate the ways in which access to time is qualitatively different for men and women. In the conclusion, the authors discuss the ways in which an analysis of time provides an entry point for explaining the persistence of deeply gendered professional hierarchies.