Jim Barry is a political sociologist and Reader at the University of East London, based in the East London Business School. Current research interests include gender and managerialism in higher education as well as in the public sector more generally. He has published on gender and politics, gender and public service, gender and organisations, gender and work stress, gender and business ethics, lone parenting and employment, and gender, managerialism and higher education.Mike Dent is Professor of Health Care Organisation, Staffordshire University. Currently his main research is the comparative study of medical and nursing work, professional and health care organisation and accountability across Europe. He also retains an interest in health care computing and information systems. He has published a number of articles on these topics as well as three books.Maggie O'Neill is Reader in Sociology at Staffordshire University. Currently her main research interest focuses upon developing participatory action research with marginalised communities and integrating theory and praxis through renewing methodologies by the use of visual/creative methods. She continues to work on prostitution and is developing expertise in the area of forced migration through her work with refugees, asylum seekers and the organisations and agencies supporting these groups.

• Introduction & Overview Part 1: Gender, Professionalism and Managerial Change in the Public Sector in Britain 1. Regendering Management: Prospects for Change 2. The Problematic Professional: gender and the transgression of 'the professional' identity 3. Ministering Angels and the Virtuous Profession: Service and Professional Identity 4. Identifying the Professional Manager: Masculinity, Professionalism and the Search for Legitimacy 5. Managing the Care?: The Management of Residential Care Homes and Professional Identity 6. On the Front Line: Experiences of Managing the New Public Services 7. Hard Nosed or Pink and Fluffy? Part 2: Case-Studies of Gender, Professionalism and Managerial Change: International Perspectives 1. Framing Ambiguity in Swedish Health Care Organisations 2. Women's Positioning in a Bureacratic Environment in Sweden: How to combine employment and mothering 3. Managing Transformation? Managers and Management in Health and Welfare Services in the New South Africa 4. The Medical Profession in France and Greece: Professional Jurisdiction, Etatism and the 'Latin Rim' 5. Gendered States: Policy and Process in Mumbai and London

'Despite a burgeoning literature over recent years on gender and organizations...the argument for taking a gender perspective, or even acknowledging that gender matters has, by and large, not spilled over into research on public sector organizations and New Public Management (NPM). It is this deficit that the book ... aims to address.' - Dr Robyn Thomas, Cardiff University, Public Management Review.'The book is of relevance to anyone who is interested in the public sector and professions, regardless of whether the principle concern is one of gender. The debates it raises cut across many of the core themes in public sector management. It provides a timely reminder, whatever our theoretical perspective and research interest, of the need to be gender sensitive (Alvesson and Sköldberg 2000) in our research. The volume draws attention to the socially constructed and contested nature of NPM, gender, and professional and managerial identities. In doing so, it provides a rich insight into the manifold ways in which individuals and groups respond to the discourses of change and the material outcomes this has on their daily lives.' - Dr Robyn Thomas, Cardiff University, Public Management Review.