A field that has long been the preserve of women, are we facing the masculinization of administrative support? A review of the current trend.
The bets were open, when the “HR bus” arrived, chartered by the Ordre des conseillers en ressources humaines. How many men were there among these forty human resources students who came to visit TOTEM, a potential employer? When she saw them disembark, Marie Nolwenn Trillot, president of the agency specializing in personnel placement, could not help counting… five men. Nothing new under the sun, she concludes. “I did my bachelors 12 years ago and the proportions were very similar.”
In administrative positions, she admits that it is becoming “more normal” to see men. On the other hand, parity has not been achieved. “We are not there,” Marie Nolwenn Trillot thinks out loud when asked which sectors are occupied by which sex. According to her, men and women are moving into communication and marketing equally, but men choose accounting and finance more, a trend similar to the past.
Denis Morin, a professor UQAM’s Department of Organization and Human Resources, highlights the significant presence of women at the university in general and in the human resources management bachelor’s program in particular. He believes this trend is a good omen, however. “Thirty years ago it was only men!” He is not therefore seeing any masculinization of administration and does not see any paradigm shift on the horizon.
Men in administrative support
On the other hand, Marie Nolwenn Trillot sees a change of attitude in organizations. “There is a big, big progression in mentalities,” she insists. She calculates that 90% of employers do not consider the sex when it comes time to fill an administrative support position. More and more, they look for diversity when recruiting. In administrative support positions we are seeing a greater presence of men. “The profession of assistant has changed,” she says. “The person in this job is now the boss’s right hand. This aspect attracts men, who would not have seen themselves serving coffee.”
Unlike masculinization of administration, what Denis Morin sees is that women are more and more being put in management positions and should be holding more senior positions within the next ten years. At this time, he says that “men are more present in private sector leadership positions, but not in public sector leadership positions.”