Femininity, Sexuality and Professionalism in the Children's Departments

Correspondence to ReadingLasses, Wigtown, Galloway, DG8 9EH. Summary Noting the significance of women in management in the localauthority children's departments (1948–72) and the preoccupationwith women in management during the 1990s, the authors comparethese two periods. In particular, they focus upon the discoursesof femininity which shape the ways in which women as managersand as professionals are talked about, understood and analysed.The argument, presented from a feminist post-structuralist perspective,is based on an analysis of data generated through interviewswith women who were significant in the children's departments(as children's officers or members of the children's committees)between 1948 and 1972. The paper shows that the ways in whichfemininity is constructed, socially and through women's subjectivities,act as powerful mechanisms through which women are controlled,but also present opportunities to women for resistance and change.