Next week, April 20-26, 2025 is Administrative Professionals Week. It’s an annual event the last week in April, with Administrative Professionals Day in the middle. This year it falls on Wednesday, April 23.
Official celebrations for office warriors began in 1942 when the National Secretaries Association was founded. The nation was gearing up for World War II, and office workers were in short supply. The association hoped to attract more white female workers into office work.
The preponderance of women in the office began in the late 19th century as office machines became the norm. According to the 1888 Manual of the Typewriter, “The typewriter is especially adapted to feminine fingers. They seem to be made for typewriting. The typewriting involves no hard labor and no more skill than playing the piano.”
[Note the illustration on the right. The typewriter looks nothing like a piano.]
The federal government hired women during the civil war, because there weren’t enough men available to clip treasury bills. I don’t know what “clipping” treasury bills entailed, but it doesn’t sound too difficult. The government soon discovered a large pool of qualified women who could be paid a lower salary than men doing the same job. In 1866, federal law set the maximum annual salary for women at $900, while men were paid between $1200 and $1800. As then Librarian of Congress A. R. Spofford noted, women “could give good service for less pay than men on his staff, thus resulting in economy.”
Enter New Office Equipment
Just in time for the 1890 census a new office machine appeared. Herman Hollerith introduced his punched card processing equipment in 1889. The Census Bureau acquired the machines and subdivided the operations. Male employees complained about the pace of work and difficulty of using the machines. They often quit after their first day on the job. But, according the New York Sun women worked faster and had a more exact touch. Soon 80 percent of the census computers were female.
Women, it appeared, were also more adept at both stenography and typing. Their ability to do routine tasks made women ideal for repetitive work. Women’s jobs did not lead to upward mobility, and the pay was low. Marriage bars were also common. A woman was expected to leave paid employment when she married. Thus she would not be in the work force long enough to seek promotion to a better paying position.
From the officer worker’s perspective, there were advantages to office work. At a time when women’s other professional employment options were teaching and nursing, office work provided a third alternative. Young women seeking office careers stayed in school longer and the salary was attractive compared to other opportunities for women with a high school education. A file clerk making $12 a week could aspire to run the office with a salary of $80 a week.
And, of course, there was the scarce position of “Private Secretary.” For the employer, having a private secretary was a sign of status. Being a private secretary was equally prestigious.
From 1952 to 1957 Ann Sothern starred in Private Secretary, an early television sit-com about a secretary who helped her boss succeed. The character’s backstory was as a single woman and WAC veteran of World War II. Her office was state of the art with IBM typewriters and telephone gear from Western Electric. In short, she was the perfect office wife.
The more recent period drama Mad Men set in a 1960s advertising agency depicted a time of transition, if not change. Character Joan Harris, for example, ran the office at the Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency. The element of change occurred in Peggy Olson’s story as she rose from typist to copy writer.
Times change. So does equipment. Office workers are as likely to be men as women. But the necessity of having people in the office who understand the filing system, can keep up with daily details, and a myriad of other seemingly small tasks doesn’t change. Office workers keep the organization running smoothly.
Say ‘Thank You,’ &
Celebrate Administrative Professionals Every Day
Sandra’s Books: Sea Tigers & Merchants. Ambition, Arrogance & Pride. Saxon Heroines. Two Coins. Rama’s Labyrinth.
Illustrations & A Few Sources
Victory Waits on Your Fingers, 1941; Jewett Typewriter, 1902; Typist Examines Ribbon, 1918; Ann Sothern as Susie McNamara, 1954; Busy Office Lady. Mary C Brinton. “Gendered Offices: A Comparative-Historical Examination of Clerical Work in Japan and the United States.” Sharon Hartman Strom. “Light Manufacturing: The Feminization of American Office Work 1900-1930.” Industrial & Labor Relations Review. Vol. 43. No. 1. 53-71.
