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From: lonetto@phri.UUCP (Michael Lonetto)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: A new form of institutionalized bigotry(really underpaid secs)
Message-ID: <379@phri.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 6-Aug-85 18:36:03 EDT
Article-I.D.: phri.379
Posted: Tue Aug  6 18:36:03 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 12-Aug-85 01:48:41 EDT
References: <3420@decwrl.UUCP>
Organization: Public Health Research Inst. (NY, NY)
Lines: 39

>  
>What I'd rather see is the sex-bias for jobs broken down--it should be just as
> reasonable to see male secretaries and female construction workers and so on.
> It's hard to say whether this would be encouraged by more reasonable pay for
> female-heavy jobs or if it would rather encourage more even pay distribution.
> I'm willing to try to up the secretarial jobs money to more fairly reflect 
>their value to the company, and see if we can't lure men into the positions as
> careers.
> 
> L S Chabot ...decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-amber!chabot   chabot%amber.dec@decwrl.arpa

I've been wondering for a while WHY secretaries are so underpaid, yet  there
is  never  a  shortage  of secretaries.  It's not an easy job (I couldn't do
it), it doesn't pay well enough to support one person, in many places  there
is  virtually  no  hope for advancement.  Added to that they are practically
indispensible.  Why do so many women stay in the field?  More important, why
do  so many women go into secretarial work?  I can't help wondering how many
secretaries derive part  of  their  support  from  other  sources  (husband,
parents  if living home), and how many are older women returning to the work
force and don't wish to spend time preparing for another  career  when  they
don't expect to work much longer.

How does such an important job rate such a flagrantly low wage?  In the city
there is no way a secretary can pay  an  apartment  rent.   Do  high  school
guidance  counselors  channel  women  into  secretarial  programs or do they
choose them themselves?

Just a few questions to see what people think/know about this.  Of the three
former  secretaries  I  know  well  one  is an EE techie, one is a bookeeper
(doesn't pay much more) and  one  is  getting  ready  to  start  programming
school, while the secretaries here all seem to have been here forever.
-- 
____________________

Michael Lonetto  Public Health Research Institute,
455 1st Ave, NY, NY 10016  
(allegra!phri!lonetto)

"BUY ART, NOT COCAINE"