Historically, women, racial and ethnic minorities,
and people from lower social class origins were simply
excluded from many professions. Women were
formally barred from obtaining the necessary education
or certification, except for the traditional female
‘semi-professions’ such as nursing and librarianship.
In the USA, African-Americans were excluded from
many university-based professional schools. In the
UK, those from lower-class backgrounds were often
unable to obtain required apprenticeships (Jacobs
2003). Even after professional training became accessible
to them, women, minorities, and people from
lower-class backgrounds often had great difficulty
finding employment