Sex and the Professions in Canada

Abstract

This paper argues that the literature on professions reveals a fundamental failure to conceptualize sex differences. Following a brief discussion of approaches to the definition of professions, we employ Katherine Marshall’s operationalization of professions in the Canadian occupational structure to explore the different experiences of female and male professionals during the 1971 -86 period. Although women have here as elsewhere flooded into the professions, pronounced patterns of sex segregation persist both within and between professional occupations. Evidence reveals that years of education and other objective characteristics do not account for die power, pay and prestige differences among professionals. Clear contrasts emerge in the marital and parental statuses of female and male professions. In short, for the professions sex counts.