ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the scene with an account of the theoretical dimensions that informed the research and provided the basis of my model, illustrated with relevant ethnographic observations. Relatively speaking, the ‘big’ divisions in feminism proved less important for this research than the variations over a much smaller range between the bourgeois and reformist feminists within the middle ground of liberal feminism. One must be cautious in using American literature, as Britain is unique in having what appears to be relatively easy access to the higher professions by simply completing undergraduate courses or undertaking ‘articles’, without the need to attend expensive, difficult, and time-consuming graduate school. The material on the meso level proved one of the most useful areas, in terms of the extensive literature on professional and educational subcultures, and on the use of ethnographic methods in the study of these subcultures.
