Turning the tables
Male personal assistants (PAS) are still very much a minority — only six per cent of Britain’s secretarial workers are men — but their numbers are increasing, at least partly because top earnings in the field can be as high as £80,000 to £100,00 (€91,000 to €113,000).
In 2017, the Executive & Personal Assistants Association (EPAA) started a campaign to get more men to enter the profession, using the slogan “Not Just a Girl’s Job”. The organization’s founder, Victoria Darragh, told the Financial Times that schools bear responsibility for the profession’s gender imbalance. “If you look at the education system, [career advisers] don’t see it as a role open to men. It’s not promoted as a profession for boys.”
However, recruiter Jessica Williams comments that attitudes to male PAS are not uniformly negative: “A younger company, especially a tech start-up, might be more open [to male PAS].”
Sean Steel, a personal assistant at the London financial services company Willis Towers Watson and deputy chair of the EPAA, says that although he is often the only man at networking events, the job suits his “organized and pragmatic” working style. As for his commitment to the job, “I chose it. It’s not a stepping stone,” Steel says.