I’ve been following Mad Men for the last few seasons and find its portrayal of women working as secretaries during the 1960’s fascinating. While most of these women have professional training and clearly do more actual work than most of the male execs they work for, they were vastly underpaid and had almost zero career mobility. It was 
expected they were there to find a husband were not permanent employees. My first reaction was to think “thank god these days women can be more than secretaries!” reflecting on the female senior editor I work for and Sigourney Weaver in Working Girl.
After I finished my MA I returned to the real world and realized I had a lot of gaps in my resume, and needed some non-academic work experience. I signed up with a staffing agency, saying I was looking for a job where I could expand my computer skills. The jobs they called me for? Receptionist. Consistently. My boyfriend, who was also looking for a temporary job to support his arts career, had signed up with the same agency and though we had basically the same skill set he was never called for a receptionist position. I think you can see where I’m going with this.
After working several short-term receptionist positions there’s no doubt in my mind the pink collar ghetto hasn’t gone anywhere. I got to know lots of other receptionists who were all in the same boat- while being a receptionist isn’t a horrible job and often pays pretty well, it keeps you in your place. What the companies and (almost always male) executives I worked for wanted was someone to smile and be helpful. Someone to take their phone 
messages, make their coffee, and put postage on their mail. Someone who could have walked out of an Emily Post guide to etiquette. I learned quickly you weren’t supposed to take interest in the inner workings of the company and never even attempted to find out about other positions in the company.
Why is this hold-over from the corporatization of North America in the 1950’s still with us? Why do we have strict laws against sexual harassment and hiring policies about equal opportunities and yet don’t question the demand for a perky, young girl to sit at the front desk? Is there any escape from the pink ghetto?
March 8, 2009 at 4:52 pm
One reason (among many)- we don’t say NO, not good enough, find me something else. NOW. I once put in a comp claim when I realized I was paying out of pocket for physio-at a federal gov’t office, for repetitive strain. My goodness, you’d of thunk I was a radical union organizer for doing it. I was also told (in same fed office) not to bring in the newspaper everyday – because it would influence people. I laughed in supervisor’s face and continued to do so. Taking orders and knowing your labour rights makes all the difference. The hold-over suits the menz in suits, the hold-over doesn’t have to be.
If/When there is a social collapse, the men will be bitterly complaining about it, while the women are planting potatoes. Perhaps women’s ego is not attached to their job, perhaps women’s orbit is around their loved ones, perhaps the suits know that?
March 10, 2009 at 9:30 am
I haven’t watched “Man Men” yet but I keep hearing that I need to. It’s on my list of stuff to do when one day, I’m no longer a grad student.
You’re right though about this bullshit pink collar business. Reception is clearly a great example but so is cashier. I’m taken aback when I see a male cashier at Loblaws, for example and I shop there once a week. So if I notice when there’s a dude behind the cash, that tells you something. They’ll have womyn of all ages, races, and sizes but rarely, if ever, will they have dudes. Dudes stock shelves and push carts; womyn are cashiers. CONSTANTLY.
How do we get out of this? I agree with the other post-er that standing up is one way but I really do think that it’s going to take more than that. It’s a culture; a culture that assumes that reception and “service clientele” jobs are for womyn OR gay men. Either way, it’s what “feminine” folks, do. I call bullshit!
May 11, 2009 at 5:07 pm
It’s tough and frustrating, for sure.
And even when you are able to move up, away from reception or cash and possibly into a position with more authority, you have to remain diligent about people trying to push you back into that role–by trying to get you to be the one taking the minutes at meetings, for example, even when this is no longer your job.
And more authority doesn’t, unfortunately, mean that you no longer have to endure sexism–often it just gets more insideous (and you get labelled a poor sport for not laughing at the sexist jokes, thereby disrupting the sausage party). Gah!
December 22, 2009 at 1:29 pm
I think this article is BS! There is absolutely nothing wrong with a career as a Receptionist. I have worked as a career Receptioist for almost 6 years. After working as an Office Manager and Payroll Coodinator for the bulk of my career, I wanted something that would be steady and low stress, so I tried reception work and I haven’t looked back. There is nothing wrong with this career nor is there anything demeaning about it. This article was written so that author could toot her own horn about her own accomplishments. And trying to use a show like Mad Men as a point of reference for the job market today is juvenile. Shame on the author. Unfortunately based on this article, I think I know exactly what her career will turn out to be like.