PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED BY FEMALE SECRETARIES IN BUSINESS ORGANISATION
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PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED BY FEMALE SECRETARIES IN BUSINESS ORGANISATION
Chapter one
INTRODUCTION
1.0 Background of the Study
The National Secretary International Association defines a secretary as an executive assistant who has mastered a skill, demonstrates the ability to assume responsibility without direct supervision, exercises initiative and judgement, and makes decisions within the scope of their assigned authority.
Stenographers and secretaries are office workers whose employment largely demand stenographic skills, specifically the ability to take dictation in shorthand and transcribe it on a typewriter. More over three million people work as secretaries, accounting for one out of every six clerical workers.
More than 98% of secretaries and stenographers are female (New Age Encyclopaedia, vol. 13). The secretarial profession arrived to Nigeria as a whole with the arrival of white males (Colonial Masters).
When white men arrived in Africa, they needed to converse with the blacks, so they looked for and made interpreters. These interpreters are indigenous to the many areas they visited. This allows both parties to communicate with one another.
The white males produced clerks as a result, and these clerks were later promoted to secretaries when offices were established, albeit with limited responsibilities.
Formally, these secretaries did very little labour, but as time passed, and especially with Nigerian independence, Nigerians took up the position from the white men who dominated the profession.
The term secretary has a lot to do with secrecy. The secretary must be able to keep official secrets without reservation. The secretarial course and profession are currently considered a course/career for women or the female gender, while males pursue other careers.
Over time, more women will remain in the profession than men. As a result, almost 98% of employed secretaries and stenographers are female (New Age Encyclopaedia vol. 13, page 359, office worker).
Unfortunately, most individuals, particularly in Nigeria, have a limited understanding of the secretary’s responsibilities. As a result, the majority of the challenges plaguing the secretarial profession stem from public misperception. They do not appear to understand what the secretarial job entails.
As a result, female secretaries in this job encounter various challenges on a daily basis. These issues range from their honour and domestic responsibilities to their jobs, colleagues, social suspicions, sexual harassment from male bosses, job stress, office politics, lack of recognition in society due to gender issues, and initiation by male counterparts who appear to collaborate with male bosses against women.
However, married female secretaries are required to demonstrate a sense of responsibility, maturity, royalty, and dependability in the performance of their duties.
The issues that female secretaries face do not end there; some married female secretaries miscarry their newborn babies as a result of job stress. We are all aware that the nature of secretaries’ work can keep one busy for 24 hours, so at times, some secretaries/mothers with new infants will be busy working up and down in the office
distracted by phone calls and other official workers, and before you know it, the forming baby will begin threatening to leave, and if the good Lord is not on their side, they may lose the baby. According to Asogwu (1993), approximately 40% of miscarriages are caused by stress.
Similarly, a secretary must have administrative skills to keep an office operating efficiently, the capacity to assign priorities, and the judgement to know when to issue instructions on behalf of her boss. She saves time by screening phone calls, visits, and mail.
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