"White collar" doesn't normally exclusively mean managerial, it means 'professional' in a kind of poorly-defined, rather obsolete, classist way. A "you know it when you see it" thing. For instance, a doctor is white collar (but probably not a manager). So's an accountant, or an engineer; again, they're mostly not managers.
How about a cordwainer? Many are highly qualified professionals, and I bet they're "blue collar" all the same. They're working with their hands making shoes after all. I think this "white/blue" distinction blinds us somewhat. What really matters is how others (in particular those who have power over us) perceive us.
As for being a profession, relatively few programmers are independent. Most work under a boss, with the same hierarchical constraints as a factory worker. We're not organised as a profession. I dare say we aren't a profession just yet. Our trade is too young for us to have achieved good average competence (doubling our numbers doesn't help, and is an indication that there's no selection pressure yet).
The only thing that makes us "white collar" is that we work in clean environment, without physical exertion.
> How about a cordwainer? Many are highly qualified professionals, and I bet they're "blue collar" all the same.
Yup. That's largely where we get into the classism thing. "White collar" doesn't say anything in particular about skill or earnings (or even education, necessarily; you don't need a degree to be white collar); it's a class signifier.
> As for being a profession, relatively few programmers are independent. Most work under a boss, with the same hierarchical constraints as a factory worker.
Same goes for doctors (in most countries), accountants, etc. And of course, a middle-manager is white collar. While collar doesn't necessarily mean self-employed/company owner/bourgeois. It's more complicated than that.
