The OECD Recommendations on Public Service Leadership and Capability and on Gender Equality in Public Life underscore the need to build diverse workforces and ensure equal opportunities for under-represented groups. Equal representation of women and men in the public sector is a key indicator of progress towards diversity and gender equality, and is needed if public policies and services are to adequately reflect the interests of all members of the society.
In 2020, women made up a larger share of public sector employees in OECD countries on average (58.9%) than of total employment (45.4%) and this was the case in all OECD countries except Austria and Luxembourg. The difference is more than 20 percentage points in Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark (Figure 12.3). One reason for this phenomenon is that some public sector occupations, such as teachers or nurses, are female dominated as they are often traditionally considered “women’s jobs”. Although the share of women in the public sector workforce increased between 2011 and 2020 by +1.8 p.p. across OECD countries, many countries are taking steps to eliminate this occupational segregation and tackle gender stereotypes (OECD, 2019).
Only 8 out of 26 OECD-EU countries, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia achieved gender parity in senior management positions in central administrations in 2021 (Figure 12.4). On average across OECD-EU countries, 40.8% of senior positions were held by women in 2021. Since 2011, the share of women in senior positions grew in most countries, except Hungary and the Slovak Republic, where it fell slightly. The increase was greatest in Finland, where the share of women in senior management more than doubled between 2011 and 2021, from 24.4% to 56.3%. However, in almost all OECD-EU countries, the share of women in senior management positions is lower than for public sector employment as a whole, possibly indicating difficulties in climbing the leadership ladder in the public sector. Policies that could contribute to achieving gender balance in the most senior levels of administration include developing a diversity strategy or setting hiring and promotion targets for women.
