Greater diversity in public workforces can result in more responsive and equitable public policies, improved public services and service delivery, more innovation, and increased employee engagement. Many governments in OECD countries have embraced diversity strategies. An important component of these has been to promote balance in the number of men and women in the senior positions where key decisions are made. Policies that could contribute to achieving gender balance include setting and monitoring of diversity objectives and targets, removing barriers for women in recruitment and promotion, ensuring equal access to flexible work practices across the administration, and generally cultivating a culture of inclusion and parity in the workplace.
In 2023, on average across the OECD, 58% of public servants were women. Only six OECD countries have fewer women than men in their central administrations: Belgium (47.9%), Japan (32.7%), Korea (48.5%), Spain (48.4%), Switzerland (37.6%) and Türkiye (33.7%). In contrast, women account for 46% of total employment across the overall economy; in almost all OECD countries, the share of women in the central administration is higher than the share in total employment (Figure 13.9). This difference may be attributed to differences in salaries and the enhanced job security typically offered by central administration roles, among other reasons.
Although women make up a greater share of public servants overall, this is not the case at all levels of the hierarchy. Women account for 41.1% of senior managerial positions on average across the OECD, 16.6 percentage points lower than their overall share in central administrations. Women account for the majority of senior positions in nine countries, with Latvia (58%), Greece (57.8%) and Sweden (57.1%) reporting the highest shares of women in managerial roles. At the middle management level, women hold an average of 50.3% of positions, reflecting progresses towards gender parity in many OECD countries (Figure 13.10). The 9.2 p.p. difference between the share of women in senior and middle managerial positions highlights persistent challenges for women’s advancement, including factors such as gender stereotypes, work-life balance pressures and workplace harassment (OECD, 2023a).
The representation of women is greatest in non-managerial positions (Figure 13.11). Women occupied 57.6% of professional positions and 62.2% of office assistant positions in OECD countries on average. In four OECD countries, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, women accounted for more than 70% of both non-managerial positions. This highlights the challenges of attracting men to such positions, potentially due to lower pay or gender norms (OECD, 2019).
