Plafonul de sticlă și administrația publică centrală din statele membre ale Uniunii Europene

Abstract

Although limiting the access of women to the labor market and especially to upper managerial (decision-making) positions hinders the growth and development potential of modern societies as an important part of their human resource is not used at its maximum potential, such practices and traditions still plague our globalized world. When such discriminative practices manifest in the public sector, especially in public administration, the adverse effects are even more worrisome, as equal representation in public administration decision-making positions can be connected with a more responsible and effective government, inclusive and democratic governance, sustainable and appropriate public policies, as well as higher levels of citizen trust. As such, this paper analyzes the representation of men and women in central public administration institutions in European Union Member States. Using 2014 data for 420 ministries and similar organizations of the 28 EU states, the results support previous research findings that women are still underrepresented in central public administration institutions, the phenomenon being more prevalent at upper organizational levels (level 1 administrators). Furthermore, the data also provides evidence for the existence of sectorial segregation, as there are consistently more women decision-makers in institutions tasked with Socio-economical functions than there are in those with Basic, Economic and Infrastructure functions (according to the BEIS typology/ classification system).