ABSTRACT
This chapter describes observations of the work histories of colleagues who dropped in and out of planning. An occupation with marginal professional status, planning is doubly marginal for women who are caught between professional and female role demands. Traditionally, planning neglects the needs of women in and out of the profession. A study of planning commissioners made in 1950 is informative about the early role of women in the profession. The growing demand for planners to work on social-service programs and the fact that more women were going to school may explain in part the changing sex composition of planning schools. If planning is marginal in society because it lacks power, the relative powerlessness of planners has intensified due to internal changes within the profession. One female planner, beginning her career as an intern at a regional planning agency, stated, “women planners need to be advocates for other women.”.
