In a business conference of 150 plus people in a large multi national. Every single one is a woman. Odd?

[MrsDiamonds]

It feels like a strange and unusual situation unreplicated anywhere else in the business.
No one else seems to think it strange. Keen to hear others thoughts.
We are PAs.

Is everyone attending the conference a PA? 150 PAs being entirely women and no men at all does seem unusual. I would expect a handful of men. Or perhaps there are male PAs but they've chosen not to attend?

I think in my career, 20 years , worked government and private sector, I have only met 1 male PA. I think it reflects on how people see this kind of job as women’s work. So men self exclude from this kind of career.

More fool them, as being a PA is a fantastic well paid career, with lots of exposure, perks and potential (business class) travel if international business

Sounds good. However for once I'd feel sorry for a man if he turned up. He'd be in the situation we're so often in in a roomful of men.

Yes I think the men self exclude as the job is beneath them.
It just struck me as odd that it’s not commented on more, as a fully female cohort doesn’t exist anywhere else in the corporate world

I have worked in the city directly and indirectly for 25 years and I have met a grand total of 2 male PAs in that time. So no, it doesn't seem weird to me at all.

The reason, in my opinion, for this, is that as a PA, you can rise to be a very senior PA/EA, earning good money etc, but the career path is NOT routinely to exit and go into management. So it doesn't attract men at all.

I used to work with a large travel company. They were a holding company so had lots of direct branches of their core business, but then also loads of subsidiary brands in a variety of different areas of travel and tourism. Their workforce was 80% female. guess what the sex breakdown of their management was? At the corporate - all men. Within the individual companies and branches? About 50%. so the MEN who went into fairly entry level travel jobs were also the ones who then went on to be promoted etc.

YOu see it everywhere.

Retail being another great example - bulk of staff at Sainsburys are women. But once you reach store manager level and above.... not so much I suspect.

Teaching. Dont' even get me started. I've looked up the statistics on this and it's infuriating.

etc etc etc