Are men in HR going extinct?

fisHRman

Hey, just read a blog asking if men in HR are going the way of the dinosaur because around 80 percent of the profession (especially generalists) are women. 

I've also read that men in HR gravitate to the "numbers" areas such as comp and benefits, while women gravitate to the "people" and hand-on parts of HR.

 What do you think? 

Blog URL

http://omegahrsolutions.blogspot.com/2010/07/are-men-in-hr-going-way-of-dinosaur.html

CalifCallie

That may have been the trend, but I think we will see a lot of males who might have gone into other business fields looking at HR as a "safer" profession.

cappy

Frankly I have not seen enough men in my  travels or networking group in HR to qualify as going extinct. Would have had to have a good number to begin with to think about depletion leading to extinction. When I am out and about for training or other HR reasons I feel as if I'm an anomaly. Several times I am the only male there. Just as many  times I am the only minority  there male or female.

I have often thought that HR is a female dominated profession in the same way  that fire departments were, and in a lot of cases still are, male dominated. It appears that males for the most part do not view HR as a viable source for career orientation. Just my  two cents worth.

HRforME

Actually I tend to agree with Cappy...I'm not sure it was ever highly male populated.  Maybe on the accounting/insurance/actuarial side. But I think a lot of HR generalists move into the position from starting out in administration.  And I just don't know that many males who start out in administration. 

Biotage

When I first started in HR (a gazillion years ago) I was one of only three women in our local association meetings of 20-30 people.  Admittedly, this was almost 30 years ago.  And the vast majority of the men were not HR professionals, they were -- sadly-- individuals who had been 'put' into "Personnel", often because they were not so successful in other areas of the company.  The HR field has simultaneously become more professional as it has become more female.