SEX-SEGREGATED WORK IN THE SYSTEM OF PROFESSIONS:

Assessing an occupation's prospects for gaining full professional status requires an understanding of the complex forces contributing to or working against such a possibility. My goal in this article is to broaden our understanding of how jurisdictional disputes are resolved in the system of professions. Occupations employing similar tactics experience different outcomes as the result of existing social divisions. This is particularly evident with female-dominated or sex-segregated occupations, such as nursing, and is important given the impending changes in the delivery of health care. Proposed changes may work to further weaken the medical profession's dominance. But without a change in gender ideology, nursing will continue to be seen as caring work suitable only for women and may not present nurses an opportunity to finally gain full professional status.