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Taking into account strong intra‐European discrepancies between workforce models for women, such as part‐time work rates and the ability to have uninterrupted careers, this article aims to show how nursing careers are shaped differently by employment and gendered social policies in France and Britain. Using the case of state hospitals, it explores how French and British nurses reconcile sector‐specific work constraints and family life at different stages of their life and career cycle.

This paper compares nurses' career patterns using age, “early exit” and part‐time data drawn from national and European official sources, large‐scale surveys and secondary literature.

Although hospital employment policies prioritise entry‐level recruitment over retention of mature nurses in both countries, French nurses are more likely to have uninterrupted full‐time careers than their British counterparts thanks to the protective effect of state employment regulations and interventionist gendered policies. However, the positive impact of the French social model on nurses' careers is limited to the childbearing and rearing stage.

The analysis of nursing careers is constrained by the scarcity of official longitudinal data in both countries. Although the study is limited to one profession in two countries, the method used is transferable to other professional groups and national contexts.

Thanks to the cross‐national comparative approach, the paper broadens profession‐centred analyses, highlighting the impact of employment and social policies on female professional careers.

This article aims to provide an overview on key trends in public sector policy and professional development and how they intersect with gender and diversity. It seeks to explore new configurations in the relationship between gender and the professions and to develop a matrix for the collection of articles presented in this volume.

The authors link social policy and governance approaches to the study of professions, using the health professions and academics as case studies. Material from a number of studies carried out by the authors together with published secondary sources provide the basis of our analysis; this is followed by an introduction of the scope and structure of this thematic issue.

The findings underline the significance of public policy as key to better understand gender and diversity in professional groups. The outline of major trends in public sector professions brings into focus both the persistence of gender inequality and the emergence of new lines of gendered divisions in the professions.

The research presented here highlights a need for new models of public sector management and professional development that are more sensitive to equality and diversity.

This article focuses on the “making” of inequality at the interface of public policy and professional action. It introduces a context sensitive approach that moves beyond equal opportunity policies and managerial accounts and highlights new directions in research and policy.