In the good old days there were not many avenues that were open for women in the jobs arena. Most aspired for becoming secretaries or teachers.
To become a secretary it was necessary that one was equipped with shorthand (stenography) and typing.The word stenography is derived from Greek – steno meaning narrow and graphy meaning writing. There is a minimum speed that is required to pass the shorthand test and the same applies to typing. There are courses in this discipline. Knowledge of English is a prerequisite to become an efficient secretary.
There are several levels in an organisation and many women aspire to work for the top management and this is a slow process. No one gets to work for top management unless one goes through different levels. Working for the organised sector is what one aims for as there the emoluments are far more attractive..
I started my career as a confidential secretary but got up the ladder to be placed in the middle management cadre until I chose to give up my job and started my own business. I worked for a multi national where we had many facilities. The pay scale was good compared to others.
Shorthand is a dying art now. Computers have taken over. The secretary boss partnership is dying too. The only place where a typist is required nowadays is in courts. In the digital world even paper filing is not seen much. So those in charge can do their own typing and filing too. They can even keep a digital diary for their appointments.
This automation is extended to other clerical jobs including that which pertains to accounts. While the digital world has reduced work it has also reduced job opportunities for several aspiring youngsters.
But with progress in the educational field one can get equipped with special knowledge and thus get opportunities to work in different spheres.
Image Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_office.jpg
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You have touched upon a very important subject. Yes computers have taken over jobs of secretaries and many others like accountant's, record keepers, typists, telephone operators and others. This is one of the negative fallout's of new technology arriving. Computers, tablets, cellphones with I phones have become like calculators today. They have taken away many of the jobs like the one mentioned above. Even the bank ATM is one such product. So is email. Today we find people sending money and gifts or payments and mails through electronic systems due to its many advantages. Now with new economic reforms in India this problem is only going to aggravate. Children in schools have computers but the knowledge is limited to a large extent and they do not want to pursue it till the tenth class as their are no marks for that subject and they do not count in the final tally. They end up like a blank page when they pass tenth class. Then go for computer courses paying huge fees in a volatile market. Many of their years thus get wasted. Educationists have to seriously look into this anomaly and do course correction. To get a good crop of very well computer literate youngsters.
Those computer courses teaching how to work on a computer are a waste. I bought those books - Windows for Dummies and picked up from there. A friend of mine guided me and that was it. Today I can do many things on my computer including creating movies and slideshows.