ABSTRACT
Secretarial work, done exclusively by women, is indicative of the apparently irremediable division of labour between men and women in France. This chapter aims to take a closer look at the impact of this proximity as it relates to the possibility of change for secretaries, and particularly in terms of career profiles. Changes in the content of secretarial work itself over the last fifteen years, so trying for the adaptive abilities of a heterogeneous group of women, will be discussed. The 1920s brought the end of a simultaneous process of technological change (the invention of the typewriter) and feminisation; secretarial work took the form it would retain for more than 50 years. The higher educational level demanded parallels the evolution of secretarial work and therefore might possibly offer that very elusive second chance to correct the gender inequalities generated within the family and school.
