Public services. Employment trends and career obstacles for women

About 450 million people are employed worldwide in the public sector, according to the latest ILO estimates, which is on average 30% of total employment. Of this number, at least 200 million are working in public administration. Although the total bill for wages of these public service personnel constitutes a major part of public expenditure - and is often the target for downsizing - reducing public services will achieve little in terms of quality and effectiveness, if attention is not paid to the development of human resources. Gender issues play a vital role in these reform processes because women and men alike are both public service personnel and are users or clients of public services.

Gender issues in the public service sector arise from differences in men's and women's share in jobs, their position in the hierarchical structure, career advancement, contractual arrangements and pay. All these aspects are interrelated. In most countries the public sector is the largest employer of women and as such provides important job opportunities for them. In public services such as health and education, women constitute the majority of the workforce. In several countries this is also true for public administration. On the other hand, the share of jobs going to women in public utilities such as water, electricity and gas is low in most countries, ranging from 1% to 2%.

Women tend to occupy the less-skilled, lower-paid and lower-level jobs. Within public administration, but also in public utilities, most women work in clerical jobs. Few women reach middle-management level and even less have top-management positions. For many years, promotion in the public service has depended mainly on seniority, to the detriment of women with family responsibilities. They often take career breaks to raise their children and may, therefore, not attain the same seniority as men. Since the public service was the first sector in a number of countries to introduce the same possibility for men to take breaks for family reasons, similar patterns may also apply to them - but to a much lesser extent.

Obstacles to women's careers in public services are not only limited to the promotion system. Recruitment procedures, criteria for selection and performance appraisals are also gender-biased. In-service training often does not correspond to women's needs and is not sufficiently accessible to them. Moreover, since women's general educational level is often low in many countries, further training is needed and yet is not readily available; in particular, to part-time and temporary workers, the majority of whom are women.

In countries where public service pay is not competitive with that of the private sector, the number of women reaching management positions is often higher. Nevertheless, women's pay in general is often less than that of their male colleagues, particularly in services where allowances (e.g. in the health services) and discretionary parts of the salary play an important role.

Addressing public service gender issues contributes significantly to policies to improve the quality and efficiency of the services provided, and makes them more client-sensitive. These policies usually lead to restructuring and decentralization to bring them closer to the users. An analysis shows that many, if not most, public services have a considerable proportion of female users and clients. Gender balance among employees who provide and manage these services could ensure a more effective response to their demands.

Legislation on equal opportunity and treatment exists in most countries. Many have removed gender-biased laws and have created services to monitor the implementation of the new legislation and ensure good practice. The obstacles to women's advancement in the public service lie mainly in rigid career ladders and little flexibility in civil service codes concerning working hours and work organization adapted to the needs of workers with family responsibilities. Additionally, because of their often lower educational levels and limited opportunities for training, women are at a disadvantage because further training is required in the restructuring process taking place in many countries.

Policy papers, affirmative action plans, and other support schemes, such as quotas have been introduced to improve women's positions in the employment structure of public services. As the largest employer in most countries, the state, traditionally considered a model for good personnel management practices through such measures, also aims to convince private employers of the usefulness of addressing gender issues in their personnel management. The large variety of possible measures is considerable and is best elaborated in dialogue with those concerned.

Downsizing and restructuring of the public services characterizes the situation of the public sector in many countries of the world. This has lead to dramatic situations for the workforce of this sector, including retrenchment and late or non-payment of salaries. Since women are predominantly concentrated in lower-skilled and lower-paid jobs, they are frequently the group most affected by redeployment or retrenchment.

To improve the efficiency of public services, more flexibility in the terms of employment and work organization must be introduced. This might favour women's needs and those of workers with family responsibilities in general. However, flexibility introduced at the expense of equal opportunity and treatment can hamper women's career prospects in the case of part-time and temporary workers. Performance-related pay is often considered to be one means of achieving quality and client-driven services, the target of public service reforms all over the world. Developments in the public service sector still remain to be analyzed in view of their gender impact.

What can the ILO do?

Analyze gender differences in public services and develop a plan of action to address gender inequality
Disseminate information on gender issues in public services
Include gender issues in analyzing the various aspects of work in public services, such as employment practices, remuneration, human resource development, working hours, work organization, safety and health
Highlight gender issues in regional and national workshops on public services with a specific focus on the socioeconomic context
Collaborate with training institutions for public services to include gender issues into their programmes
Promote the development of sex-disaggregated statistics (i.e., statistics broken down by sex) of the workforce of public services
Develop a checklist for monitoring and evaluating to ensure that gender issues are a priority concern in ILO's activities in public services

Gender! A Partnership of Equals
Geneve: International Labour Office, 2000. 115 p.

Public services
Employment trends and career obstacles for women

Gender! A Partnership of Equals Geneve: International Labour Office, 2000. 115 p.

Public services Employment trends and career obstacles for women

Gender! A Partnership of Equals
Geneve: International Labour Office, 2000. 115 p.

Public services
Employment trends and career obstacles for women