Final answer:
Professional societies played a crucial role in supporting and networking for professionals in the new middle class, enforcing standards, and facilitating educational advancements.
Step-by-step explanation:
The role of professional societies during the development of the new middle class was to provide support and networking opportunities for professionals. These societies encompassed a diverse array of skilled groups including bankers, physicians, scribes, and merchants, each maintaining their guilds or associations.
Such organizations enforced high professional standards and facilitated the exchange of information and best practices among their members. They were integral in helping the middle class maintain or advance their social status through hard work, education, and the reinforcement of values such as cleanliness, discipline, and morality.
For example, in the new middle class, children did not work in factories but attended school, with many engaging in self-improving activities designed to instill the skills and values necessary for success. The emergence of the middle class, which included managers, engineers, doctors, accountants, and other salaried professionals, was closely linked with the Industrial Revolution and its reorganization of economic and social structures.
The educational advancements such as public schooling and the creation of land-grant colleges facilitated by professional societies further solidified the middle class's foothold in professional life.