Secretary: The Rise And Fall Of The Office Wife (PHOTOS)

For over a century now, secretarial work has been extolled as a wonderful career opportunity for women--and excoriated as dead-end busy work. Both characterizations are true. Office work has supported or supplemented my writing career for almost 20 years, but I still have a hard time not adding the words--aloud or mentally--"just a" or "only a" in front of the word "secretary" when people ask me what I do. I doubt I'm the only one. I mean, can you blame us? Today's secretary is responsible for a greater array of complex tasks than her predecessors ever were, but the word itself is considered so demeaning that most offices shelved it long ago in favor of "administrative assistant." Indeed, "diminished image" and low pay were given as two reasons for a secretarial shortage that began in the late 1970s. Anyone who hasn't resided under a rock for the past century is well aware of that image--the husband-hunting, pencil-pushing, coffee-getting, dumb-bunny, sex-bomb secretary depicted in advertising, novels, movies, television shows, comic books and just about every other form of pop culture for a lot longer than you probably realize. Consider the history of that most pernicious of secretarial stereotypes: the office wife.

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MISS REMINGTON (1908)

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Women first entered the office as Treasury Department clerks thanks to a manpower shortage caused by the Civil War. Almost immediately, the thought of men and women working side by side, unchaperoned, caused tongues to wag. So much so that by 1894, the author of a guide to the sights of New York City did his best to defend typewriters' reputations (the word then referred to both the machine and its operator): "On few subjects have more jokes been made, and ill-natured slurs cast, than on the 'pretty typewriter.' It is doubtless true that some unprincipled adventuresses, and some weak and silly girls, have entered this occupation. But the overwhelming majority of the women who operate typewriting machines are modest, industrious, and worthy of all encouragement," he concluded.

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Women first entered the office as Treasury Department clerks thanks to a manpower shortage caused by the Civil War. Almost immediately, the thought of men and women working side by side, unchaperoned, caused tongues to wag. So much so that by 1894, the author of a guide to the sights of New York City did his best to defend typewriters' reputations (the word then referred to both the machine and its operator): "On few subjects have more jokes been made, and ill-natured slurs cast, than on the 'pretty typewriter.' It is doubtless true that some unprincipled adventuresses, and some weak and silly girls, have entered this occupation. But the overwhelming majority of the women who operate typewriting machines are modest, industrious, and worthy of all encouragement," he concluded.

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Comments

[chuckl4826]

11:35 PM on 06/07/2011

Definition of a private secretary, one who never misses a period!

[rivergirl301]

09:56 PM on 06/07/2011

When I was in college in the 80s, I knew women who regretted not having learned to type; they refused to learn to type because they thought knowing to type would force them into a secretarial career. Then the computer came along. . .

[fiibias]

10:30 PM on 06/07/2011

#They may do all manner of objectionable things...They may be many things, but they are NOT witches.# Beyond career,woman as social object?

[gypsygal]

12:40 PM on 06/13/2011

What is your point? I'm sure that the face that they weren't officially trained in typing didn't hurt them any more than all of the men who had never taken a typing class before computers "came along."

[Justthom]

04:22 PM on 06/07/2011

I had a secretary while in the Navy who made no bones about it. She was there to find an officer husband. Her thinking was that you fall in love with the group you hang out with. She figured to marry a junior officer who was making the Navy career. If he was a pilot, even better. If he was KIA she would go back to the club with her ID and find a senior officer.

A few later a friend of mine, a Commander, told me that he was getting married and asked if I'd be the best man. I, of course, said yes. We traveled to her place; about 100 +/- miles. When his fiancee opened the door I almost fell over.

It was her!

She'd been married to a junior officer, naval aviator, who was KIA in Viet-Nam. She'd met my friend at the "O" Club.

We both pretended not to know one another.

They have now been married for 42 years and appear to be as happy as the day that they were married. I don't know if she has ever mentioned to him that we knew each other. I certainly saw no point in ever disclosing it.

[twittikat]

01:57 PM on 06/07/2011

Thank God I'm a postmodern woman!

[vermont57]

01:09 PM on 06/07/2011

Don't forget Lois Lenz, Lesbian Secretary. Google it and you'll get the sexy pulp fiction novel front cover.

[gil tisit]

12:27 PM on 06/07/2011

The rise and fall of the office wife? This looks like a good introduction for discussions on; this could have greater scope (brainstorming), and " for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

[AngelaBfla]

09:18 AM on 06/07/2011

When I worked in an office, it was an all day battle to keep the men at bay. Back in the days before sexual harrassment was illegal, I needed a baseball bat to get through the day.

[kevinofheaven]

05:46 PM on 06/07/2011

And you miss those days fondly, yes?

[AngelaBfla]

04:01 AM on 06/10/2011

Dream on.

[BlueGirlRedState]

08:18 AM on 06/07/2011

Don't forget Perry Mason's secretary.

[emncaity]

02:07 AM on 06/07/2011

God-dang. Good thing I have a wife who's so much better-looking than me it's ridiculous. It's wrong to think pulp artwork is really attractive and to envision some kind of polygamous life with it, right?

[thembaforum]

01:31 AM on 06/07/2011

What they all need is a good MBA.

[Jack Daniels Esq]

12:47 AM on 06/07/2011

Confuscious say "Secretery no permanent until scrwed on desk"

[JRNO]

09:32 PM on 06/06/2011

Another job title that has disappeared is "Girl Friday".

[scottyknows]

07:10 PM on 06/06/2011

Sometimes affairs stem from the incredible boredom of office work.

[shylove2]

06:17 PM on 06/06/2011

It is impossible to function effectively without male and female energy...

[whatchamean]

04:59 PM on 06/06/2011

sexy women in the office, nice to have.