Why are most secretaries and receptionists women?

Question

Is it a sexist thing, a vestige of another age?
Or is it that only woman can stand sitting like sheep in on place all
day long, at their bosses beck and call?

I wasn't denigrating the positions of secretary and receptionist. I'm sure there
are various challenges that one encounters
in the job per scheduling and such. I work at an investment bank with 70 or so secretaties in the area(three floors), and without an exception, they are all female,
and the positions are subservient to the nth degree.
They are allowed to initiate nothing, and have no authority vested in their position except what is granted through their immediate supervisor, of which she is
under total command.
They are paid BY FAR the least in our department. They make an average of 35-38K, while all the revenue-generating amanysts on up make 6 figures. Even the analysts right out of college make 120K.
The secretaties perform mundane and survile tasks, which still include fetching coffee and scheduling their supervisors
personal situations.
Worst of all, they are they only employees
here who MUST smile, like ***** housemaids of the antebellum south.
Totally sexist

I will personally say thay I could never deal with the crap these great ladies here have to take everyday. Its not males that have secretaties here either, about 40% executives are female here, and they all have female secretaries as well. Don't tell
me the women execs need mothering too!
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The fact is, a secretary and receptionist is a reic of an earlier, more sexist, lower-tech age of office work. With computers and software, they are becoming less necessary, and are being eliminated rapidly over here. we have about half the secretarial pool we had in the 80's, and more people as a whole work here now.
As they go hi-tech, they denigrate the job further as an antiquated colloqialism,
and the ones that are left are even lower in status.
And now they make them all "permatemps"
here, so they can pay no benefits. We have a poor lady here still temping after 5 years. They temp all the "support staff",
while the revenue producers stay!

I forgot to add one last important thing.
The secretaries are not on anything even remotely considered a career track. Like
a serf on a feudal property in the middle ages, they can pretty much look forward to making the same pay, and doing the same thing forever.
They have such thing as executive secretaries here, which means simply that
they work for a top dog in the company, and have been around for a long time....
they make about 50K, but there is just a handful of them. Most make little, and can expect to be doing the same thing, and making the same money 10 years from
now.
That's the beauty of making most of them temps, so they can dangle that carrot in front of them, to take their mind off the fact that they are on no career track whatsoever.

The only thing going for the secretaries that are fully vested employes is that they can lord it over their temp "sisters",
which they quite readily do. One poor temp
girl gets dumped on constantly by the fully-employeds.

I'm not sexist...the world is....I'm just telling you foolks what verbatim goes on here
at a major investment bank. I think the system of secretaries and receptionists is sexist, especially the part where you have a lower caste in the office with no change to advance on anything resembling a career track,
They sacrifice their whole lives, and spend time making personal calls to their exectutives kids teachers and such, just cause they can use them in such a way.
I wish they could entirely remove all secretaries and receptionists, and, if not,
to give them great opportunites to advance.
Right now, in 90% of companies, there is NO chance for advancement on a decent scale whatsoever.
They are simply the slaves and serfs of the office. And one guy here uses the younger
secretaries forsex, as we see him go out with her downtown here, and she is just kept here like a concubline in a mandarins'
harem, with nothing to do all day. She makes gift shop runs out of sheer boredom.
so sad..

Answer 1

Because women are wonderful multi-taskers. It's obvious you haven't a clue what these jobs entail - they are extremely hard work and require very special skills to do. You watch way too many movies and/or tv shows with stereotypes.

Answer 2

The are all different levels of administrators.

Thing about a someone with limited skills, due to lack of training. There are several positions available; fast food, bagger at a supermarket, labor and administrator. The men would gravitate to labor due to physical strength as well as the pay is probably better.

A higher level administrator may be a single mom who is just looking for a "normal" 9-5 schedule. Or an older woman, who may have been layed off finds it easy to slip into a secretarial position.

Male executives, (not to sound sexist) may need some "mothering" & "nuturing" during a hectic day and having a woman there, may be the preference. Also, woman are more patient and can listen to these men where a man might just say, "Hey - I'm outta here!" Isn't that the truth??

Answer 3

YOU obviously don't know ANYTHING about the job, the reason we have to smile is because WE have to greet the clients, WE are there first impression of the company, and IT is our job to make clients comfortable, i'm sure you've had a rude person greet you without a smile and they come off VERY uninviting, i have seen male secretaries but yes more women do have the jobs and that is your choice, it might be sexist of me to say this but some clients might like seeing a sweet female face greet them rather then a man at the desk, i have no problem with this,i am a receptionist at a real estate office, but they changed my title to office coordinator/receptionist because i do a lot more then just "sit here like a sheep" i have to set up all the showing appointments, appraisels, make up the showing sheets, listing sheets everyday, update the microsoft access system and much more, my agents tell me that they wouldn't be able to do anything without me, they say i practically run this office, why don't you talk to some secretary's bosses and see how valuable they really are, you would be surprised, and everybody knows you don't take a secretary/receptionist job for the money, you do it because you have a good attitude and like helping people

Answer 4

Well yeah its a sexist thing and also a vestige of another age where have you been? Those women sitting there are not sheep ! They are people making a living. On this forum everyone complains about those who dont work and now you come up with this silly question. I can tell you this much those women sitting there get my respect cause a crappier job isnt to be found, especially the beck and call part. But they work because they have to and I personally think your question was sexist.

Answer 5

I think it partially has to do with the mind set, that a person feels more comfortable when they call a company and a nice, pleasant female voice greets them, as well as when visiting a business, a female receptionist is more appealing to a visitor. It's almost a traditional thing that you don't really think about or notice until you hear a gruff male voice answer a phone. Thnik about it next time you make a business phone call.

Answer 6

Because most bosses are men!lol
Seriously, I think is because women can perform multitasks more efficiently than men and must important of all I think men don't apply for that type of job. But I think things are changing. In our days must tasks can be perform by men or women it's a question of dedication.

Answer 7

I think it's because women are far more adept at keeping stuff straight, more organized, more efficient, more empathetic, more intelligent in most cases, and just all around more pleasant to talk to than men. Aren't you married? No, probably not.

Answer 8

You don't want to see a 300 lb., man smoking a cigar, answering you'r questions, right? women are beautiful and smell like an angel!!

Answer 9

it's simple
most people feel more comfortable dealing with a female receptionist than with a male.

Answer 10

Because they are sincere and courteous and are liked by all.