So, Is HR Women's Work?

Sharon McKnight SPHR

I was searching for something in the Forum a few minutes ago and came across a post titled

[B]So, Is HR Women's Work?[/B]

You can find it here:

[URL="http://www.hrlaws.com/forum/showthread.php?t=65266&highlight=Allsteaks"]http://www.hrlaws.com/forum/showthread.php?t=65266[/URL]


I never really thought about the demographics of the HR profession before but this post got me thinking about how HR does seem to be dominated by women. And that got me asking questions, for example:

Are there more women working in HR that there are men?
If there are more women, why?
What attracts more women than men to the profession?

Can anyone answer these questions? Any ideas about this?

Sharon

NaeNae55

Generally when I attend a HR conference there are many more women than men. However, I have recently noticed more men taking volunteer leadership roles, and more men attending conferences. I suspect the former resulted in the latter.

Still Need Coffee

Nae, you might be on to something!

Paul in Cannon Beach

My theory is that most people arrive in their HR role through a backdoor. Meaning, they didn't initially pursue HR as a career or seek an HR degree in college.

I think what happens is they show aptitude in some other role: supervisor, administrator, etc.. Eventually they find themselves in an HR position because of their abilities.

This has led to more women in HR than men because women typically are better suited for what many HR roles require: empathy, organization, communication, counseling, etc.

These are broad generalizations. Get it? Broad?

Dutch2

Paul.... my ol' friend - you're just asking for trouble.

KSR6450

[quote=Paul in Cannon Beach;723827]These are broad generalizations. Get it? Broad?[/quote]

No, please explain...:D

bethk

Ok Paul, now that's funny!

ACU Frank

To piggyback on Paul's comment... (Get it? Pig? hahaha)

A lot of HR people started on the clerical/administrative side - doing payroll for accounting, admin assistant, etc. They gradually took on benefits enrollment, orientation, policies and procedures... and voila! You have an HR person.

Most likely, the vast majority of the HR pros who came up through payroll or admin are women.