Analysing Change in Women's Careers

ANALYSING CHANGE IN WOMEN’S CAREERS 57

Analysing Change in Women’s Careers: Culture, Structure and Action Dimensions

Julia Evetts*

This article addresses a number of related issues. It outlines and illustrates three dimensions of explanations about women’s careers: cultural, structural and action dimensions. The three dimensions are considered as aspects of determinism and choice in women’s careers and are illustrated with regard to different professional sectors. The article argues that change needs to be a prominent feature in the analysis of women’s careers but that change is differently perceived and interpreted in analyses in the three different dimensions.

Introduction dimensions of explanations about women’s careers: cultural, structural and action dimen- he issue of women’s opportunities for sions. The three are considered as aspects of Tpromotion in employment, or women’s determinism and choice in women’s careers careers, has recently been high on political and are illustrated with regard to women’s and social agendas. The report of the Hansard careers in different professional sectors. In the Society Commission (1990) was concerned final discussion section, the article argues that about the lack of women in top positions in change needs to be a prominent feature in the public service, in corporate management and analysis of women’s careers but that change in key areas of influence such as the media, is differently perceived and interpreted in universities and trade unions. In 1991 the analyses in the three different dimensions. public campaign ‘Opportunity 2000’ attracted The analysis is concerned with women’s a great deal of media attention for its object- careers and promotions in organizations and ives to increase the quantity and proportion the professions. The discussion focuses on of women’s participation in higher levels of women who are in non-manual and middle- management in public and private work class occupations that have a knowledge organizations. Women have entered the pro- and expertise base usually acquired in higher fessions and career-oriented occupations in education and/or vocational qualifications larger numbers since the 1960s. A question that are general, academic or job-related. These that now needs urgently to be addressed is non-manual occupations frequently have how do we analyse and begin to assess what promotion positions (perhaps management is happening to women who do embark on positions) which can be achieved through careers in professions and in occupations some combination of factors such as length of with promotion ladders? service, experience, ability and aptitude, and This article represents some reflections the acquisition of further vocational qualifica- following research into women’s careers and tions. Where organizations and professions gender differences in careers in Britain. The have promotion ladders, such ladders can be research was predominantly a qualitative nationally standardized (e.g. in teaching and project which used career histories as data, nursing — although increasingly with local along with some background statistical infor- or regionally negotiated variations) or they mation. The project included careers in can be firm- or company-specific (e.g. in teaching and headship in primary and sec- industrial organizations — although many Address for correspondence: ondary schools (Evetts 1990, 1994a), careers industrial firms use a common Hays Scoring * Julia Evetts, in science and engineering in two large System for lower and medium-level posts and Centre for Professions and industrial organizations (Evetts 1996), and positions). Qualifications and promotions are Professional Work, School careers in the four major High Street banks linked in that occupational qualifications of Sociology and Social (Parker et al., 1998). Policy, University bestow competence on practitioners which is of Nottingham, University The article addresses a number of related of great significance to the ideology of pro- Park, Nottingham issues. The analysis section outlines three fessionalism (Crompton and Sanderson 1990) NG7 2 RD, UK.

and qualifications also form the prerequisites widely recognized and acknowledged and justification for merit-based systems of (Silverstone and Ward 1980; Spencer and promotion. Podmore 1987), that researchers began to Gender differences in the patterns of careers, develop explanatory theories and concepts as well as in the number and distribution of to explore the issue of women and career. In promotion posts, have already been well docu- general, there are three parts to or dimensions mented. In promotion terms the qualified in- of these explanatory theories which emphasize dividual can develop a linear career and seek different factors and kinds of influence. The regular promotion in a profession or organ- three dimensions also result in different ization. Alternatively, the qualified individual interpretations of change and continuity, can remain at the practitioner level. Many different perceptions of choice and deter- qualified women develop occupational careers minism, in women’s careers. The three which might include extended periods at dimensions of explanatory theories are: practitioner levels, perhaps during part-time 1. Cultural dimensions: family and employment. Crompton and Sanderson (1990) feminine ideologies, and organizational noted that part-time work is not considered cultures. relevant to the ‘linear’ careers that are 2. Structural dimensions: family structures developed in organizational and professional and organizational processes. contexts. It is in respect of linear promotions 3. Action dimensions: women’s choices that women’s careers are generally different and strategies. to those of some men (Evetts 1994b). Men predominate at the higher promotion levels In the sections which follow, the three of organizations and professions, and ‘organ- dimensions of the explanations of women’s izational hierarchies are not sympathetic careers are outlined, illustrated and assessed to women’ (Crompton and Sanderson 1990, in respect of careers in particular occupational p. 71). In addition, women are, for the most and professional sectors. It is not intended to part, entering only certain types of career; imply that particular researchers focus only they develop careers in the public sector on one kind of explanation to the exclusion of caring professions, but considerably fewer others — although this sometimes happens. develop careers in technical or commercial Most other researchers have linked dimen- professions in the private sector. sions one and two in explanations and many have emphasized the determinants (culture and structure) rather than the choice elements Analysis in women’s careers. There is indeed a tension within feminist analysis between those who Analysis of women’s careers in particular emphasize the system (culture and structure) occupational contexts is increasing and determinants of and constraints to women’s several explanations have been developed. careers and those who stress women’s Researchers have made use of feminist choices, decisions and actions in the resultant concepts as well as ideas from the sociology outcomes. The vitriolic exchanges between of occupations and the professions in order to Hakim (1995) and her critics well illustrate explore and attempt to account for the gender this tension. differences in careers. For a period, re- The argument in this article is that in general searchers interested in women’s careers had one dimension is no more important than the an uneasy relationship with feminist writers others. Rather, that all three dimensions are since their concerns were with women who needed for a full explanation of women’s were relatively privileged. Such women were career experiences, of aspects of change as receiving well-paid salaries; many could well as continuity in women’s careers. It then afford their own transport and pay for help becomes a matter for empirical demon- with housework, child care and responsi- stration in particular occupations and sectors bilities for elderly relatives; their occupations that one or another dimension is more were secure and their careers were safe, if important at different times and in different unspectacular. Compared with their less social systems. Certainly individuals will privileged sisters, it was difficult to argue that perceive different dimensions to be more the position of such women needed different important in the accounts they give of their explanatory theories and concepts compared own experiences of their career. with men’s careers. Although many feminist researchers have It was probably not until the 1980s, when linked the cultural and structural deter- statistics of women’s minority position, minants of women’s careers, this analysis ghettoization and marginalization in careered will maintain that there are different kinds occupations and professions became more of determinants. It will be argued that the

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cultural aspects (beliefs and ideologies) are with themselves as partners, wives, mothers, analytically distinct from the structural daughters and professional or career workers. determinants (organizational promotional Contemporary feminist literature has demon- ladders and the divisions of labour in organ- strated the deep embeddedness of gender izations and families). The analysis is under- within labour market processes and practices taken to clarify the different dimensions and (Adkins 1995). Against such ideological elements but also to indicate how the dimen- forces, the practitioner career, which enables sions are inextricably linked and interrelated. the woman to combine paid professional and Culture and structure elements are analyt- unpaid work while avoiding promotion, ically distinct, different in kind and mutually would seem a highly rational choice (Brannen supporting, although they are sometimes and Moss 1991) at least for a period. To pur- difficult to disentangle in practice. sue a linear career and compete for promo- It is also important to acknowledge that I tion, the woman might have to consciously have emphasized the third dimension (choice oppose the ideological dictates of family and and agency) in my analysis of careers. I have motherhood as well as the cultural impera- been particularly interested in the choices tives of what it means to be feminine. Such which women make, and the strategies which powerful ideological forces have had a clear are devised, when women face cultural and controlling effect on women’s career aspira- structural determinants of and constraints to tions and achievements. their careers. Thus my analysis has empha- In addition, cultural analysis has centred sized the diversity, variety and complexity of on the gendered aspects and attributes of the women’s career decisions; a diversity which processes in work organizations themselves. might be interpreted as post-modern as well Bourne and Wikler (1982) described the ‘dis- as post-structural. criminatory environment’ and the ‘maleness’ of professions. There have been conceptual debates about ‘organizational cultures’, e.g. Cultural dimensions: family and Morgan (1986), and Pringle (1989), and Hearn feminine ideologies, and et al. (1989) have discussed ‘organizational organizational cultures sexuality’ as an explanatory factor. Other researchers have identified the masculine Most feminist theories and forms of explana- imagery of particular kinds of work such tion can be used to illustrate this dimension. as engineering (Cockburn 1985) or science When explanations consider cultural factors, (Byrne 1993), or the military associations of then the focus is the belief systems and technology (Hacker 1989). controlling social attitudes which affect occu- In contrast, the caring professions have a pational choice and career aspirations. Cul- different image, but this results in other sorts tural dimensions emphasize the controlling of problems for women’s careers. Davies notions of femininity, of what it means to be a (1995) examined the professional predicament woman; the ideology of the perfect family in nursing and how our idea of nursing is which influences ideals of femininity; and the connected with ideas of what it is to be a culture of work organizations and the profes- woman. This has consequences for the status sions, particularly the culture of manage- of nursing as a profession and for medical ment, which is usually perceived as strongly dominance within the health service. Similar masculine. Feminist analysis has included sorts of problems have been described for examination, often deconstruction, of belief women teachers and headteachers (Acker, S. systems and controlling ideologies in con- 1983, 1989), and of the divisions particularly temporary society. between primary and secondary heads in the Cultural belief systems influence and teaching profession. control behaviour by means of common- Another aspect of the culture dimension of sense notions of what is ‘natural’ as well as explanations has been analysis of the culture through moral precepts of what is right and of management in organizations and the appropriate. The beliefs that are incorporated professions, which has been handled in in the cultural dimensions of femininity different ways over time. Crompton (1997, and family, as well as the supposed mascu- p. 19) has argued that ‘feminist politics has linity of many work organizations, continue always been characterized by a tension to be powerful controlling forces in women’s between “equality” and “difference”’ and this working lives. Such ideologies affect the ways is well illustrated in feminist attitudes to the in which women choose an occupation or pro- culture of management. Early research on fession, decide to balance paid and unpaid women in professional and managerial work work, their identities and sense of satisfaction had been concerned to demonstrate ‘no difference’ in leadership styles and task

performance (see summary of such work in There were similar cultural difficulties for Marshall 1984, pp. 14–17). Shakeshaft (1987) women in banking where it was frequently argued that such a strategy was essential in suggested that customers preferred a male the 1960s and 1970s in order to refute the manager and financial advisor. These cultural biases and prejudices which claimed that dilemmas did not apply to the same extent in women were less effective than men in man- teaching and headship, however. The head- agerial positions. In the 1980s, feminists teachers in my research managed in diverse began to pursue a different strategy which ways and had a wide variety of leadership emphasized gender differences and gave styles and skills but the differences were not prominence to female (in contrast to male) gender-related. Some of the women head- attributes (e.g. Gilligan 1982). Efforts were teachers were certainly troubled by the in- made to analyse the existence of a specifically trusion of gendered expectations and female work culture. Such a culture was seen assumptions into their professional work and to emphasize collegiality (rather than hier- even the priority given to their gender rather archy), caring and sensitivity in relationships than their professional identity. Only the (rather than authority) and had a different promotion of more women into senior perception of priority and good practice. It management positions in schools (and else- was also suggested that such a female work where) will break the stereotypical cultural culture was advantageous in many respects assumptions of men as managers and women for clients, customers, work colleagues and as assistants. It is such gendered cultural for workers themselves (e.g. Gray 1987). associations which make difficulties for The strategy of asserting difference, rather women in senior positions in organizations than sameness, did help to shift the focus and professions. away from women’s deficiencies in career The cultural dimensions of explanations terms on to women’s strengths. Marshall are prominent and persuasive in accounting (1984), for example, talked about women for women’s career difficulties and gender managers taking communal and relatedness differences in careers. Arguments are com- values with them into organizations. Some of plex but essentially the explanation is that the effects she perceived to be a perspective women will have learnt to prefer and to choose on connectedness and an acceptance of certain kinds of occupation, or certain sections affiliation and cooperation (in contrast to or sectors of occupations. For the most part individual competition) as an alternative and women will seek the satisfaction of helping an improved means of getting work done. others in their chosen fields and avoid the The dilemmas for women seeking pro- potentially hostile, individualistic, competitive motion in organizations and professions and assertive areas of promotion in organ- remained, however. If work, the professions, izational careers. Women who, in their career industry and organizations, as presently con- choices, ambitions and behaviour, seem to stituted, are ones where a culture of individual- challenge gender stereotypes will be per- ism and competitiveness constitute what is ceived as odd, as different (or even deficient) recognized as career potential, then women in essential aspects of femininity, caring and who want to achieve career promotion will be relatedness. They will be admired by a few required to meet such expectations, and to but they will mostly be criticized, by other manage the cultural dilemmas they entail for women as well as men, in their attempts to women, if they wish to succeed. There are break new ground. likely to be important differences in these Such powerful cultural expectations and respects, however, between organizational ideological forces have had, and continue to and professional sectors. have, a clear controlling effect on women’s In general, organizational and managerial career choices, aspirations and expectations. cultures are likely to pose difficulties for The cultural dimensions of explanations have women in engineering and science. In the been used to emphasize the difficulties for and organizations I studied, the beliefs about the determinants of women’s career choices, ‘good’ management were perceived to be in and the continuation and reproduction of conflict with women’s other roles and re- gender differences in career achievements. sponsibilities. Similarly ‘good’ management was not perceived as involving caring, relatedness or connectedness. Consequently, Structural dimensions: family women who were seeking promotion in these structures and organizational industrial organizations had to demonstrate processes promotion potential in the organization’s terms. The women had to adapt and match the Many sociological theories and forms of cultural expectations of the work organization. explanation can be used to illustrate this

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dimension of explanations. It is important to practices, departmental divisions, promotion note, however, that dimensions one and two ladders and hierarchies of work position in are very closely linked in explanations and organizations and professions. It is these other researchers (e.g. Davies 1995; Crompton structures, and the job descriptions and ex- 1997) have preferred not to separate them but perience requirements of particular positions, rather to regard both as aspects of structure. which affect career paths and trajectories. Feminist sociologists in general have empha- These structures also result in gender differ- sized both cultural and structural dimensions ences in occupational distribution and pro- in their explanations. Davies (1995), for motion progress. example, stresses both structural and cultural The organizational processes which processes in her analysis of the professional produce such gender differences in careers predicament for nursing. have been variously described. Witz (1992) The structural dimensions of career include analysed the professional practices of social the institutional and organizational forms closure and used material drawn from the and patterns in both the family and the work emerging medical division of labour in the organization. Structural dimensions are the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. ways in which work tasks and responsibil- Podmore and Spencer (1986, p. 44) ities are divided up between members of the maintained that the ‘stacking up’ of women family; the divisions of labour and depart- in particular sectors or ‘ghettos’ of profes- mental systems in work organizations; and sions and organizations tended to emphasize the promotion ladders and career paths rather than reduce the divisions between men’s within work organizations and professions. and women’s work. Clegg (1989) discussed These family and work structures and work organizational power structures as factors promotion processes form the contexts in affecting patterns of gendered employment. which women’s career decisions and choices Collins’ (1981) and Pfeffer’s (1989) accounts are made, and which differentially affect the were examinations of the ‘political’ construc- occupational destinations and career traject- tion of careers where the resources of workers ories of women and men. and the politics of groups within organizations The structures and processes of the family were examined in order to explain how in Western industrial or post-industrial societies careers were constructed. have had a clear controlling influence on the There has also been growing interest in the gendering of careers. Feminists have termed ways in which gender interacts with bureau- this family structure as patriarchal (Beechey cratic organizational processes and how 1979; Barrett 1980; Acker, J. 1989) and have gendered career paths reform as a result of examined the effects of the structure of the organizational change. In an edited collec- patriarchal family on women’s position in tion, Savage and Witz (1992) have reviewed capitalist systems of employment (Kuhn and the theoretical developments which have Wolpe 1978; Leonard Barker and Allen 1976). resulted in gender and organizations having Clearly, the ‘reasonableness’ of the controlling a prominent place in service class changes. In ideologies of femininity and the family are a recent analysis, Halford et al. (1997) examine also part of this determining structure, and how organizations in banking, local govern- indicate the interrelatedness of cultural and ment and nursing have been restructured and structural aspects of career. Women are per- how gendered career paths have been shifted ceived, and perceive themselves, as having accordingly. The cultural contradictions ex- the prime responsibility for the support and perienced by women in career positions in maintenance of their families, both nuclear the professions and management have also and extended, and the care of its members. been a common theme in this structuralist re- These responsibilities both limit and confine search literature (Hearn et al. 1989; Cockburn women’s commitment to paid work and to 1991; Davidson and Cooper 1992; Evetts promotion in their careers. Thus, the require- 1994b). ments of the paid work and careers of men The structure of the labour market and the are perceived as of primary significance for demographic supply of and demand for the present and future well-being and eco- middle-class labour also affect organizational nomic security of the family and its members. policies and hence the career opportunities, Women’s careers are required to recognize particularly for women. A predicted decline and incorporate this structural determinant. in the supply of qualified labour in the mid- Family structures co-exist with organ- 1990s resulted in a flurry of activity (e.g. izational work structures as conditions for provision of crèche and nursery facilities, and determinants of women’s paid work and career break schemes), by banks and other career experiences. Organizational structures employers of middle-class labour, in attempts consist of the divisions of labour, work to retain their professional female workers.

This level of activity has not been sustained, female) and managerial positions (predom- however, since other technological and inantly male). Thus the women professionals efficiency changes altered the demand and in banking developed technical specialist supply balances in particular labour markets. knowledge but had no managerial re- The balance is determined in highly complex sponsibility or authority for other workers, or ways in industrial and commercial organ- for decision-making within the organization. izations but there will be differences com- Similar structural divisions were apparent pared with the processes in public service in the organizational contexts which I exam- organizations like schools and hospitals. ined. In the organizations where the engineers Despite such sector differences, labour market and scientists worked, there were indications conditions and economic contexts constitute that the women were choosing, or were being nevertheless critical structural determinants encouraged to choose, the professional rather of career opportunities. than the managerial promotion routes. The The characteristics of particular internal women were thereby becoming highly skilled labour markets also differentially affect the technical specialists but not the managers of distribution of career opportunities for women other engineers or scientists. Gender divisions and men. It is through the occupational were also apparent between the primary and culture of particular work and through the secondary school sectors in the headteacher generalized acceptance of certain procedures careers. Promotion in banking careers similarly and processes for controlling and managing reflected some of Savage’s divisions. This was promotion in that work, that internal labour not the whole story, however, and there was markets, or career opportunities and con- more diversity and complexity in career straints, are created. A gendered internal patterns and in women’s career choices than labour market is formed when a career struc- such structural generalizations would seem ture emerges whereby some members (e.g. to indicate. men) can progress and achieve promotion in The analysis of structural influences on the career whereas others (e.g. women) are careers has increased understanding and left in practitioner/occupational positions. awareness of family, professional and organ- There is a considerable body of evidence izational structures and processes which that women are excluded from, exclude them- constrain and limit the actions of some selves, or find it difficult to compete for, career women career builders and reproduce gender positions in the internal labour markets of segregation in occupations. The importance professions and organizations (Kanter 1976; of cultural factors is part of the same process Collinson and Knights 1986; Crompton and since family and organizational structures Sanderson 1990). Different occupations use depend on a generalized acceptance of the different processes rendering internal labour ‘reasonableness’ of particular patterns. Thus markets distinctive. One way is through there is uncritical acceptance of beliefs such gender-differentiated recruitment where men as that ‘career success is individualistic’, and women train and apply for different jobs ‘promotion is merit-based’, ‘certain jobs are (Savage 1992). There are other structural and most appropriately women’s jobs’, and that cultural mechanisms, however, and these have ‘women’s family roles are more important been receiving increased attention as more anyway’. These cultural beliefs and con- women have been training for and recruited trolling social attitudes support and maintain onto the bottom levels of career ladders. the structural arrangements and processes The structural divisions of professional within work organizations and families. work, and the development of separate career Such ‘common-sense’ beliefs constitute the and promotion ladders within organizations, hegemonic ideology that shapes the pro- have important consequences for gender motional constraints for women’s careers. differences in careers. Spencer and Podmore The structural (like cultural) dimensions of (1987) discussed the specialist divisions explanations have been used to emphasize within professions and the marginalization the difficulties for and the determinants of of women professionals into low-ranking, women’s careers, as well as the continuation lower-paid, specialities. Crompton and Le and reproduction of gender differences in Feuvre (1996) demonstrated how women in careers. medicine in both Britain and France made family-orientated choices of medical special- ism and how this might be different for careers Action dimensions: women’s in banking (Crompton and Harris 1998). choices and strategies Savage (1992) identified the gendered structural division within banking organizations Analysis of the cultural and structural dimen- into high expertise positions (predominantly sions of explanations focuses primarily on the

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determinants of careers, or at least the con- individual intention and external constraint straints in the careers of women. The 1980s meet. Strategies are ways of achieving goals’ had seen the re-emergence of an action or (Woods 1983, p. 9). The use of the concept agency frame of reference, however, in which, of strategy has been critically examined by in the context of cultural and structural con- Crow (1989) who indicated the difficulties straints, women were perceived as actively which arise from ill-considered usage such building their lives and careers out of the as in situations of differential power resources conditions created and maintained by larger or when outcomes are essentially unplanned structural and cultural forces. or unintentional rather than strategic. The In action or agency interpretations, careers analysis of strategies has, however, enabled are not perceived as determined by cultural the active part played by individuals them- and structural forces. Rather, such forces are selves to be studied. This has increased our mediated in their impact by processes of understanding of individual creativity in social interaction; cultures and structures developing strategies, as well as our appre- are experienced; individuals respond and ciation of the diversity and complexity with react in diverse ways; people construct their which individuals use whatever resources own meanings, make choices and develop they have to cope with and manage con- strategies. straints. Action analysis puts women themselves (as No particular strategy is valued more well as men) back into sociological models as than others, although promotion-successful making decisions and exercising choices de- women, particularly in male-dominated spite continuing cultural barriers and struc- careers, have sometimes received a dispro- tural constraints (Hakim 1996; Crompton portionate amount of media attention and 1997). In the action frame of reference, ana- acclaim. Such women have also received a lysis of career does not have to be confined to disproportionate amount of criticism, how- promotion progress (or lack of it) in work ever, often from feminist researchers who have organizations and professions. Analysis can interpreted successful women’s promotion also include other work, other roles and achievements as a sellout to or an adoption of responsibilities which women actively or male career patterns and values by means of more reluctantly undertake (Finch 1983). the exploitation of other women’s labour (e.g. These other kinds of work do not have to be of cleaners, nannies, etc.). The action dimen- judged or assessed as handicaps, problems or sion is concerned to emphasize, however, the difficulties for women’s careers, unless that rational ‘choice’ element of all career decisions, is how women themselves experience them. in the face of complex career constraints and This kind of analysis emphasizes that in- variable career resources. equalities, constraints and power are experi- In the analysis of careers which I have enced and dealt with in very different ways undertaken I have considered the action even by people from similar social groupings dimension of careers (of women’s career (Weiner 1994). Analysis also recognizes the ‘choices’ and career strategies) alongside complexity of every individual life where, for the cultural and structural determinants of example, women can experience oppression careers in particular organizational contexts. in some spheres, while being privileged and I have demonstrated wide diversity and also exercising oppression in other spheres variety, as well as complexity, in the ‘choices’ (Holland and Blair 1995). that were made and the strategies that were In analysis of the action dimensions of developed. women’s careers, the difficulties of organiza- The diversity and complexity were indeed tional and professional promotion structures enormous. Thus some women were develop- and the cultural belief systems of family ing linear careers in the industrial or com- and femininity still have to be managed by mercial organizations or in schools in the women. Women will manage such constraints education system. Some were achieving high in different ways which include adaptation, promotion positions by remaining (or having manipulation, negotiation, resistance and to remain) single and/or childfree. Others were confrontation. Tactics for coping with con- developing highly complex caring arrange- straints will vary between one woman and ments and coping strategies at least for a another and for any one woman will vary period. Other women were choosing not to over time and in different contexts. In order focus on promotion but instead to balance to study the different ways in which in- paid work and family responsibilities either dividuals manage constraints, interactionists for a short period or as a longer-term career have suggested the concept of ‘strategy’. strategy. Some women chose particular sectors The concept of ‘strategy’ has been central in of their organizations and professions per- interactionist research since ‘it is where haps avoiding managerial positions, again for

shorter or longer periods, in order to enable expectations constrain choice but neverthe- them to fulfil other responsibilities. Other less women do choose to an extent between women chose career patterns which involved opportunities available to them. Careers part-time and practitioner careers, again for frequently result from earlier decisions which short or longer periods. Several women, par- narrow the range of opportunities. Careers ticularly in teaching, had taken career breaks also result from happenstance, serendipity and beyond statutory maternity leave, though from chance coincidences and encounters younger women and women in engineering, as well as from career planning, structural science and banking were perhaps less in- and organizational changes and changes in clined to do this. cultural conditions. Most of the women knew that particular career choices assisted while others were likely to handicap promotion progress, but Discussion they opted for such choices as seeming to meet their immediate needs, aims and goals. This article has suggested the importance The consequences for the careers of the of three dimensions (culture, structure and engineers and scientists of ‘choosing’ the pro- action) in the analysis and explanation of fessional specialist rather than the managerial women’s careers and of gender differences in route, for example, were well recognized. careers. This concluding section will return to Obviously some of the women would change aspects of change and continuity in women’s their minds over the course of their careers careers and relate these to the determinants and perhaps become discontented with a and choice dimensions of explanations. particular course of action that was chosen or Although the preceding sections have sep- was felt to be the best way at the time. This is arated the three dimensions for the purpose what makes careers dynamic and a process of clarification and illustration, it is important rather than a once-and-for-all decision. Also to have constantly in mind the links and some of the women had fewer choices to inter-connections between the processes of make in their particular organizational con- career culture, structure and action; of how texts or fewer resources in their personal lives. structure and culture arise out of actions and Certainly particular career choices limited how actions are influenced by structure and future career options and opportunities, and culture (Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992). What careers often resulted from earlier decisions people do in their careers always presup- which closed some doors and narrowed the poses some kind of pre-existing structure range of future possibilities. and culture (promotion ladders, rules of It is also important to emphasize that the behaviour, cultural expectations, etc.) but in career ‘choices’ and strategies were essentially what they do, people simultaneously recreate personal and individual. Collective action did the structure and culture anew or altern- not form a part of the career decision-making atively new structures emerge and cultural process. The women had developed individual expectations are gradually adjusted. The and personal solutions to the cultural and processes of structuration (Giddens 1984) structural constraints in their careers. Either include both the reproduction or modifica- by prioritizing promotion or by negotiating tion of existing, as well as the creation of new, various balances in their careers, they were structures. concerned to meet, not challenge the needs Structural change is certainly ongoing and and demands of their organizations and continuous and there is recognition of the professions. These women were active in impact of legislation on women’s oppor- constructing resolutions and devising per- tunities for careers (Walby 1997). There is also sonal strategies. They chose between the acknowledgement of other structural changes, examples set by other women in their organ- in both work organizations and families, but izations or in schools but they did not expect these changes are usually interpreted as company or educational policies, trade union detrimental for women’s career opportunities. procedures or feminist principles to help sort Changes in the structures of work organ- their arrangements. Their personal situations izations include the general trends of down- and their career ambitions and intentions were sizing and the removal of middle levels of perceived as too variable and diverse (too management, and new departmental divisions complex) to be adequately met by corporate and groupings of workers. Other changes spe- systems or collective action. cific to particular internal labour markets In general, then, in the action dimension of include new job descriptions and divisions explanations, careers are not determined in of responsibilities; increasing levels of self- any causal way by structural and cultural employment, consultancy work and short- factors. Structural processes and cultural term contracts; budgetary devolution and the

development of internal financial markets in to affect and to sustain. The controlling force organizations. of cultural imperatives constitutes a check Change is even apparent in the structures and a brake on both action and structural and processes of families. Structures of family impetuses for change. Cultural assumptions, are increasingly diverse with lone parent- stereotypes and moral prescriptions will hood as the fastest growing family form eventually change, however, and beliefs and (Social Trends 1997). Weekend-only partner- expectations will adapt to sustain new struc- ships are also an increasing pattern, par- tural career patterns. There is already evid- ticularly for dual-career couples. Extended ence of change as present-day attitudes to family responsibilities for child care, along and the limited acceptability of the working with increased use of nursery and crèche mother, the career woman and the dual-career facilities and after-school clubs (where they partnership are beginning to demonstrate. exist), the employment of nannies or informal It is possible (more speculatively) to arrangements between working mothers, all suggest, therefore, that in recent years it has indicate diversity of structural conditions and been research into women’s career actions patterns. and choices that has been of paramount Despite recognition of these ongoing struc- importance in challenging traditional gender- tural changes, the paradox is that the struc- differentiated explanations for women’s tural dimensions of explanations continue to careers. It is important not to underestimate emphasize the reproduction of constraints to the increasingly diverse ‘choices’ made by women’s careers and of gender differences in women actors in the organizations and pro- career achievements. Aspects of gender in- fessions in which they are building careers. equality (like wage differentials and unequal The analysis of cultural and structural career destinations) continue to be empha- constraints on and determinants of women’s sized in explanations. Changes are interpreted careers needs to be supplemented by recog- as the shifting or adaption of gendered career nition of the variety and variation of women’s routes such that career inequalities continue responses. This results in untidy variations to be reproduced though in different organ- and contradictions in work places and organizational forms (Savage 1992; Cockburn 1991; izations which represent women actors’ Halford et al. 1997). coping strategies as well as the attempts of It seems, therefore, that it is the action some to challenge the constraints to women’s dimension of explanations which has gone careers. furthest in incorporating change. Structural Perhaps there is a need for feminist analysis change is accompanied by increased com- to bring women as agents for change into plexity, diversity and variation in women’s sociological analysis and theory, while recog- career choices and strategies. The biggest nizing the continuing force of structural and changes are perceived to have occurred in cultural imperatives. The continuing division women’s attachment to paid work and in of feminist researchers into opposing factions: their career ambitions. 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