The Rise of Professional Organizing and the Failure of Standard Employment

• In Event: 40812 - Professions and Occupations

Abstract

In the late 1970s, professional organizing emerged as a small, fast-growing occupation comprised of women seeking alternatives to standard employment. At a time when professional opportunities for women were limited, starting an organizing business offered a chance to work for oneself, on one’s own schedule, doing work that offered both meaning and variety. Early organizers fought to establish occupational legitimacy for their new profession, one triply stigmatized as service work performed by women, mainly in the home. Their efforts were successful; nearly fifty years later, organizing is a household name, the subject of dozens of reality shows and countless books, bogs, and magazines.

In this paper, I present findings from ten years of research among professional organizers, including interviews with over 50 organizers and more than 100 hours as an unpaid organizing assistant. I discuss what draws organizers to this profession as well as the challenges and rewards of working in this field. Specifically, I identify parallels between why early organizers in the 1970s pursued this career—namely flexibility, autonomy, and personal fulfillment—and why so many women continue to do so today, even with so many more professions now open to them. I address the nature of the work itself, especially the connective labor (Pugh 2024) organizers engage in with clients, as well as potential barriers to success in the field, especially around race and class. Ultimately, I argue that the growth of organizing—and occupations like it—highlights the continued failure of standard employment to provide work that is secure, meaningful, and humane, especially for women. This research also points toward solutions that address ongoing issues of overwork, overwhelm, and the gendered division of household labor.

Author

• Carrie M. Lane, California State University, Fullerton