Secretaries

[mishalak]

When exactly did secretary become a job without respect? I mean look at the titles in our government, Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of Defense, etc... And yet out in the business world the word secretary has been replaced with the doubletalk title "administrative assistant". I suppose that somewhere along the way being a business secretary had became "women's work" and thus a title that both men and women wanted to avoid. Though if this is the case I wonder why then the word "nurse" was not replaced. It had the same development where once women were not allowed to do it and then, seemingly overnight at the start of the 20th century, women dominated the profession and it was one of the few ways in which women could be in the medical profession. Yes, yes I know there were women doctors earlier than 1900, but there were not very many until after the midpoint of the century.
 

Comments

[daedala.livejournal.com]

One of the reason there is a shortage of nurses, I've heard, is that now more women can become doctors.

Did you see the fabulous Onion article about Secretary Rumsfeld being honored for Secretary's Day? It was delightful to read all those platitudes about secretaries said about Rummy. They gave him a bouquet and everything...

[bcp.livejournal.com]

It is kinda odd hey? Especially since the word originally meant a trusted person who knew all your secrets :)

Not exactly someone I'd ever want to demean...

[ajournalguy.livejournal.com]

Not that I haven't commented in your journal more than enough today...
But I think a lot of respect has been lost all around. We don't treat people in rather a lot of professions with the same deference and courtesy our parents and grandparents did.

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

More or less, yes.

Margaret Mead observed that in any culture where some work is defined as "women's work" and some work is defined as "men's work", the men's work is always regarded as prestigious, essential, highly paid (in cultures which operate in terms of pay) and the women's work is always regarded as inferior, inessential, and less well paid.

And it's still absolutely true. Being a doctor is a highly prestigious and highly-paid job everywhere except in the former Soviet Union, where there are more women doctors than there are men doctors, and where being a doctor is not regarded as a particularly prestigious job (nor is it very highly-paid). Computer programmers are 95% men (in my experience), and programmers are paid far better than technical writers, who are 50% women (in my experience). And so on.

[jcfiala.livejournal.com]

Any office which doesn't treat its secretary(ies) with respect is probably not running as well as it could. These people are often the grease that keeps business running, and like any engine, the better your grease the more efficient your work.