Forty years ago, women in corporate life started out as secretaries—and that’s where they stayed. They typed, they answered the phone, they helped with the executive’s calendar, they screened his visitors. That was all.
That, unfortunately, remains the public’s view today of the job they do. “Glorified secretary” is the popular verdict, and executive opinion inside the corporation mostly mirrors what the man in the street thinks.
That was not the way Joan Burge thought about herself.