Gender imbalance in State Bureaucracies

October 23 2002 - Recent research from the University of Arkansas indicates that integration of women into administrative and professional positions at state governmental bureaucracies has been slow over the past decade. In fact, it will take well over half a century to achieve gender balance across all state agencies if progress continues at the present rate.

"If you look anywhere for justice and fairness, you look to the public sector, the government - not to corporations. This would be the first place you'd expect gender parity to occur," said Brinck Kerr, associate professor of political science.

Research conducted by Kerr and colleagues Will Miller and Margaret Reid indicates shows that most state agencies have few women in top positions and that they have done little to place or promote female employees over the last ten years. And this is despite despite federal regulations mandating equitable hiring practices.

"People think the problem of gender equality has been solved. We've passed legislation, enacted policies, heard court cases. It's all taken care of, right?" added Miller. "Our research says otherwise. In fact, this issue is a long way from being solved."

Kerr, Miller and Reid scrutinized classified reports from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) over a period of 4 years, analyzing employee demographics in state and municipal governments throughout the country. They were able to confirm the under-employment of women and ethnic minorities in state agencies, leading to adverse effects on equity and limiting diverse representation in public policy. Their latest article, "Sex-Based Occupational Segregation in U.S. State Bureaucracies, 1987-97," appeared in the July/August issue of Public Administration Review.

They divided state agencies into three categories, setting a relatively low goal of 30% female administrators and professionals to represent gender equality.

* Distributive agencies - providing maintenance or service to the public, including road construction and repair, forestry management, parks and recreation, and water conservation. In 1987, the typical state highway agency contained a mere 6% female administrators. Over the next ten years this climbed to only 14%.

* Regulatory agencies - including police and fire departments, utilities and transportation. Police agencies had just 6% women in 1987 and 15% by 1997. Utility/transportation agencies started from a higher point (16% in 1987) but gained only 6% over the decade, reaching 22% in 1997.

* Redistributive agencies - shifting money and services between groups or classes of people. Such agencies oversee social welfare, hospitals or health services. In 1987, each of the redistributive agencies showed percentages at or near the goal. By 1997, all of these agencies had exceeded the 30% mark.

"One reason we see more women in the redistributive services may be the fact that they have access to those agencies in a way that they don't have with transportation or police departments," suggested Miller. "Also, the services these agencies provide fit in line with the traditional policy interests of women - health care, child safety, welfare issues. Many of these social service programs developed out of women's activism in the first place."

The low percentages of women in other areas of state government may not simply be due to a problem of access. They suspect that internal attitudes and cultures within departments are discouraging women from obtaining employment in the first place and from advancing once they're there.

"Bureaucrats aren't elected. So to make a bureaucracy democratic, it has to contain people with a variety of viewpoints and backgrounds, all of whom influence the way that policies are implemented," Miller said. "We're concerned with getting women and minorities into those bureaucracies so that they have a voice in enacting policy."

Recruiting and integrating women across all state agencies constitutes a long-term challenge, requiring multiple solutions. Expanded educational opportunities may help by preparing more women to enter the workforce in diverse professions. Also, agencies can hire women at the professional level, improving the odds that a woman will advance to the administrative corps. Having more women professionals may influence agency culture and make female promotion more likely.

The effects of federal equal employment and affirmative action policies are becoming fragmented and inconsistent as more and more federal programs and initiatives move under the responsibility of state and local governments.

"Policies are not self-enforcing. We've got laws on paper, but we need managers, activists, theorists to keep checking the progress of these issues," Reid said. "The only reason we know what's happening is because the EEOC is required by law to maintain employee records and to track the effects of policy around the nation."