Middle management

[ArghMyEyesMyEyes]

I'm an avid reader of this topic on MN. I don't contribute much because of many reasons, largely because I'm not highly educated (all my own fault).

I work in the medical field. Before this, I worked in education.

There are somewhere between little and no men that work in offices in this capacity.

Men seem to work in either manual or top level management.

Why's that, then?

I work in an office that houses somewhere in the region of thirty women. WOMEN. Not a single man.

When applying for jobs having been made redundant a year ago, I was exclusively interviewed by women, for jobs in offices.

It seems to me that men are employed either at the top or the bottom of the hierarchy but not in the middle.

Why's this, please?

I don't know which fields you mean but in investment banking, men outnumber women in every level and in every department (except for admin and HR). In my experience anyway.

I think it depends. In universities there are plenty of men in the middle.

It probably just says something about the fields you work in.

There are also plenty of women working at the bottom.... and arguably lower down than the men, in that women's unskilled work is generally lower paid than men's.

"I don't know which fields you mean but in investment banking, men outnumber women in every level and in every department (except for admin and HR). In my experience anyway."

My experience too - though despite HR being female-dominated there always seems to be a man in charge of the department! I've worked in office jobs a couple of different banks and it's definitely male-dominated, never been interviewed by a woman, for example, and often been the only woman in my team. I agree it might be different in other fields like education and health which are maybe perceived as more 'feminine'.

I do see plenty of women doing manual work as well, e.g. cleaning work, so that's by no means a man's domain.

And surely men must have to pass through the middle of the hierarchy to get to the top? You don't tend to jump straight from manual worker or new graduate to managing director...

Perhaps it's that fewer men are going into the fields in question in recent years, so most of the remaining ones have been there a long while and worked their way up to senior positions? Possibly because the younger men today are all going for those socially useless but better paid jobs in the City! Whereas women place more importance on doing something of value to others (because of girls being brought up to serve and be of use?)

Thinking about this myself as I just quit one of those lucrative but soulless city jobs to do something I consider more worthwhile...and slightly wondering now if I'm falling into gender stereotyped behaviour...

you can get brought in from the top of other fields though.
eg Roy Clare who was made Director of the National Maritime Museum (museums being v female-dominated in their middle and lower levels) from being an admiral.