The Work Calls for Men: The Social Construction of Professionalism and Professional Education for Librarianship

The leaders of the library profession in the United States in the 19th century were white, middle-class, college-educated men. They attempted to construct librarianship in the United States as an equivalent profession to the other white, masculine professions of their day. They also created education for librarianship in the same mold. They subscribed to, and employed, the traditional white Western masculine definition of profession as one of expertise derived from education based on science. They also employed the control of knowledge and its application as exemplified by the type of professional education they promoted. Their efforts were not restricted to education but also included active discrimination against female librarians in the Library War Service during the First World War. This paper presents a new perspective on the meaning of "profession" which recognizes it as situated at the intersection of gender, race, and nationality and explores the implications for modern education for librarianship.