I was once on a hiring panel to fill a Senior Program Coordinator role at a university.
We had fifty applicants.
Forty-nine were women.
The sole male applicant was an international candidate, looking for an H1-B visa, and was an alumnus of our program.
When I asked the (all-female) hiring committee if the makeup of our candidate pool was at all unusual, they said: No – this is normal. This band of job is a female band. We don’t usually have male applicants for these roles.
Women, if we would act like men for just one day and would all, collectively, refuse to apply for Coordinator and Assistant jobs, what would happen to businesses all over the world?
It would be an office version of the striking women in Lysistrata.
We could shut society down.
Coordinators and Assistants are vital to every organization. They clean up the messes of every fast-moving executive. They pore over documents and plan big events and organize countless meetings and keep careful records. They make sure everything gets done.
These are high-stress, high-stakes jobs that don’t allow any room for error.
Coordinator and Assistant jobs are demanding positions (filled with work no one else wants to do), which are often demeaned because they conjure the face of a woman in society’s mind.
Because these jobs are ‘female’ jobs, the assumption can be that the person in this role must be married to a ‘breadwinner’ whose salary covers the bulk of the household’s bills. These positions are essential to organizations but aren’t seen as essential to the workers who fill them.
That mentality is very 1953.
The women I know who are Assistants and Coordinators took these jobs because they wanted a foot in the door of the organization.
Many of these women are newly divorced, are single mothers, or are recent college graduates who are vulnerable: they need to work, and are glad for an employer who grants stability, flexibility, and health benefits, for example.
But eventually, these brilliant, capable women grow to feel frustrated and stuck in low-paying Coordinator roles, until they can secure specialized skills and move on.
Organizations that aren’t paying attention don’t usually see fit to redesign Coordinator positions, either, because the line of (female) applicants for these jobs is long, should the current Coordinator become fed up and leave.
Women, when you are looking at jobs, you might ask yourself: would a man take this position?
If the answer is ‘no,’ the role will likely not be well-respected nor well-paid.
Men very rarely take coordinator roles. They specialize, and demand more from the job in doing so.
Women – consider specializing when you are in college, graduate, or technical school. If you’re working already – gain specialized skills on the job. The more specialized your skills, the less likely you will be to apply for positions that are undervalued because they are ‘female’ jobs.
If you are looking at early-career office jobs, look for roles with titles such as Analyst, Associate, or Specialist. These jobs are more likely to be fairly compensated and well-regarded, and to have a clear career path, because they will be sought after by men as well as women.
What do you think? How are Assistant and Coordinator roles seen, and staffed, in your organization?
(For more professional development advice for women, read this post: “Three Mistakes Young Women Make in Professional Communication.”)
