The more things change, the more they stay the same. At least that’s how it seems with recent data that shows that the most common job for a woman to hold in the 1950s is that same as it was in 2010: Secretary.
Wait … what? Haven’t women broken the glass ceiling and those tired old stereotypes that dictate they’re better off in the secretarial pool than in some high-powered corporate role? Yes! But that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with more women than men filling secretarial roles in the workforce.
Women have indeed broken the glass ceiling, and are certainly capable of doing any job that a man can do. And all things being equal, we’re usually paid better for it. Heck, we’ve recently been invited to serve on the front battle lines in war, so no matter what your opinion is on what women should do, it seems we can do anything.
Just because women can do practically anything a man can do (but come on, is peeing while standing up really that great?) doesn’t mean that she isn’t better suited sometimes for certain jobs.
The term secretary has fallen out of popularity over the years, being replaced by administrative assistant or office professional, but let’s be honest: A secretary is a secretary. And there’s nothing wrong with that. There’s also nothing wrong with women filling a majority of those positions.
Why are more women than men secretaries? I’m going to run with gender stereotypes here and say -- they’re better at it. Women seem to be naturally more capable than men at scheduling, resolving conflicts, keeping people on task, and staying organized.
Side note: The top job for American men is truck driver … does this mean they’re better at sitting on their hineys for most of the day? I kid, I kid …
I called a female friend that works as a secretary to ask how she felt about this topic. “How do you feel about the fact that more women than men work as secretaries in today’s modern world?” I asked.
“I worked with a male administrative assistant once,” she responded with politically correct candor, “He got fired. He wasn’t very good at his job.” When I pressed her as to why, she said, “I think women are just more detail-oriented, and that’s a necessity in this line of work.”
So there you go. Sure secretaries, office assistants, administrative professionals, or whatever they’re being called today are more likely to be of the female variety. It doesn’t mean that we aren’t capable of doing anything else -- it just means we’re better at it.
Why do you think secretary is still the number one job for women in America?
Image via austinevan/Flickr
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Comments 22
I think women tend to be more of a care taker than men and they say women are better at multitasking than men, those are two skills for any great secretary. Every professional woman I know started off with a male administrative assistant and now they all have women, I think that says it all.
Pinstripes-Out of curiosity where did you get your numbers? I would be very surprised to see that male secretaries make more than female ones do.
While a lot of people go to college, a lot do not. I think there is a belief that one of the more realistic routes into a business setting without a college degree is an executive assistant, but unfortunately (though not 100 or 90% of the time, but indeed the majority of the time) it tends to be a position people get stuck in -- of either sex. While yes, it's flexible and allows for more family/personal time, it's probably not ideal for a lot of people seeking mobility unless they carefully choose an industry (say: a secretary in a doctors office -- you can't exactly move up in the ranks versus a secretary in an HR office who could most definitely be "trained" over the years with more/different responsibilities).
The only thing that irks me about ideas like this is that it walks that weirdo Cosmo line of reasoning: women are naturally better at it and that that becomes a valid reason to expound upon something that has a rash of interesting implications behind it that go beyond "women are better at it." In caveman times women were cataloguing their root vegetables and making sure their children weren't being eaten by mastadons, so women have a primal instict that's suited to secretarial work which is why it remains the number one job for women.
That's what I heard when I read this.
I think the big problem is that secretaries, like teachers, nurses and other professions which have typically been female-dominated, tend not to be given the respect that they deserve. The assumption is that if you choose any of these careers, it must be because you weren't smart/ambitious/hard-working/whatever enough to do something "better". And I say that as a teacher. In generations past, women who filled these roles were generally unmarried and childless--so they already were the "marginalized women", dismissed with terms such as "spinster" and "old maid"--and their jobs weren't viewed as true professions. Further, while nursing has always required special training, teaching and secretarial work did not--anyone could be a teacher or a secretary. Even after these careers have become professionalized, and most secretaries and all teachers have college degrees--and often advanced degrees--their jobs are still looked at with that holdover "anyone could do this" view. This tends not to be the case with careers in male-dominated fields.
I'm an administrative assistant. When I hear the term "secretary", I feel like it deducts IQ points. I don't take dictation, have a bee hive hairdo, or type on a typewriter.