ABSTRACT
Women have found common cause to fight for their rights in a maledominated society at intervals over a long period of history. Accordingly, in relation to women professionals, there tended to be a greater emphasis on the identification of problems than on success in resolving them: but there were also signs that some at least of those problems were being systematically addressed and were in the process of resolution. One of the most striking phenomena has been the growth in the numbers of professionally qualified women in recent years. The proclivity of young women to form heterosexual alliances and produce children creates an inevitable interruption, however brief, in their careers. In the teeth of legislative attempts to promote equal career opportunities for women, a flourishing culture of underground discrimination survives. A partial resolution of the difficulty, it is sometimes proposed, is to adopt the retaliatory measure of setting up rival women’s networks.
