The problematic professional: Gender and the transgression of ‘professional’ identity Introduction

Much of the research that has taken place under the heading of gender at work over the last decades has been concerned to locate women’s experience in the context of the paid labour market and to advance our theorising of women’s continued differential status in terms of pay and employment opportunities. Many contemporary studies of women in the professions and ‘professional women’ have likewise focused on ‘moving up’ the corporate ladder or in ‘professional’ arenas as evidence of their continued progress in the enclaves of organisational life, both in public and private sectors alike. Coupled with interest in the transition of public sector organisations towards modernisation, marketisation and managerialism (see, for example Pollitt 1990; Hood 1995; Clarke and Newman 1997), several academic commentators have begun to explore further the contours and (re)confi gurations of gender in contemporary organisational sites (Gherardi 1995; Ledwith and Colgan 1996; Collinson and Hearn 1996; Whitehead and Moodley 1999).