Nursing careers in France and Britain: age‐related policy matters

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.