Professionalization

Professionalization. Professionalization, the rise of particular occupations to positions of authority and honor, began in eighteenth‐century America. The professions of that era, notably law, medicine, and ministry, especially flourished in prosperous seaboard cities experiencing rapid social stratification. They became occupations that a gentleman could pursue without demeaning himself and, indeed, that could make a man a gentleman simply by the fact of his taking them up. Social class and occupational characteristics merged. The professional exercised authority not only over his work, but over his clientele as well. The tradesman sold his customers what they wanted; the professional gave his clients, patients, or parishioners what they needed. The traits of professionalism—honor, authority, a secure income—carried over from these preindustrial professions to those of the late twentieth century.

The early nineteenth century brought an ambivalent egalitarianism that mixed a vague leveling impulse with an eagerness for upward mobility—unsurprising in an expanding democratic society dominated by small farmers. As the traditional hierarchical society eroded, any well‐behaved white male could aspire to the rank of “gentleman.” The professional associations, with their restrictive membership requirements and their state licensing laws, came under attack. In 1800, three‐quarters of the states had educational requirements for the practice of law; by 1860, only one‐quarter did. In 1800, almost all states had medical licensing laws; by 1860, almost none did.

Despite the unfavorable social circumstances, the professions maintained gentlemanly authority and honor within their own ranks while surrendering both in society at large. The lowering of entry standards brought the professions within reach of ordinary folk. Dentistry and pharmacy, previously considered merely trades, became “professionalized” in this era. Women and African Americans found places at the margins of the professions. (They would be excluded again, however, as the professions regained power in the late nineteenth century.)

Post–Civil War industrialization and capital accumulation produced new kinds of social stratification in the burgeoning cities, revitalizing the professions and providing new rationales for their existence. The period from 1880 to 1920 was a heyday of professionalism in the United States, with scores of professional societies arising in many realms of American life. Expanding rapidly, the professions raised requirements for admission to their associations and, through new state licensing laws, to the professions themselves. Even in this very different social milieu, the ideal of the gentleman professional survived. For example, the American Medical Association's celebrated code of ethics, retained into the twentieth century, was mostly written by an eighteenth‐century English physician.

The principal new profession of this era was engineering. Though the engineering societies were dominated by consulting engineers, whose situation was closest to that of the traditional professions, most engineers were employees of large firms. For them, status and prestige within the corporate hierarchy replaced the broader social authority and honor once accorded to professionals.

As the twentieth century wore on, the percentage of Americans employed in agriculture and in the production of goods declined sharply, while the percentage of those in the service sector rose. In these new circumstances, the professions—in a sense, the first service industries—stood out as models of a special kind of success. To be a “professional,” or so it seemed, meant autonomy; status; a secure income; and escape from the indignities, depersonalization, and uncertainties of bureaucracies and markets. The professions brought into the modern world ideals that were premodern and predemocratic. This gave them great appeal and helped fuel a powerful drive for professionalization within the growing service industries that was a central fact of late twentieth‐century American social history.
See also American Bar Association; Capitalism; Legal Profession; Libraries; Women in the Labor Force.

Bibliography

Samuel Haber . The Quest for Authority and Honor in the American Professions, 1750–1900, 1990.
Amitai Etzioni, ed., The Semi‐Professions and Their Organization, 1969.
Thomas M. Stanback , Understanding the Service Economy, 1979.
Gerald Geison, ed., Professions and Professional Ideologies in America, 1983.
Michael Burrage and Rolf Torstendahl, eds., Professions in Theory and History: Rethinking the Study of the Professions, 1990.
Elliot A. Krause , Death of the Guilds: Professions, States, and the Advance of Capitalism, 1930 to the Present, 1996.

Samuel Haber