ABSTRACT
The gender composition of many professions has changed dramatically. This chapter focuses on the corporate sectors of law and accountancy in England and Wales and the United States. It explores the relationship between the profession’s patriarchal culture and the progressive embedding of a capitalist logic at both the occupational and organisational level, and in particular the demand for ‘total commitment’ enforced through the tournament. The chapter also explores the tension between this demand, gender stereotypes and their relationship to women’s unpaid role in social reproduction, and the significance of this role in maintaining patriarchal culture. It discusses how the resulting ambivalence surrounding the concept of a woman professional is both accentuated by ongoing sexual stereotyping and overtly misogynistic and exclusionary practices. The chapter also focuses on to complexity theory to consider, briefly, likely future trends, including those related to the recent resurgence in populist, anti-feminist discourse.
