The latest report on the Gender Gap in the National Public Administration (APN) is “auspicious” because “It shows for the first time a piece of information that will mark a change that will be lasting”assured Ana Gabriela Castellani, Secretary of Management and Public Employment, about the report that exposed the growth in the participation of women in senior public management positions since 2019.
The biannual report, carried out with civilian personnel from the national public sector and released by the Secretariat of Management and Public Employmentindicated that the participation of women grew from 36% in 2021 to 48% in December 2022 in career executive positions such as national, general, simple and coordinator directors.
The December results specified that 48.9% of civilian personnel jobs are held by women, while 51.1% are men, and in the case of Senior Public Management that proportion is 48% and 52 %, respectively.
Regarding the positions of Higher Authorities, he indicated that 36% are held by women and 64% by men.
Although these management spaces represent one of the universes where there continues to be a wider gender gap, the work provided that as of December 2009 the percentage of women as authorities was 19% against 81% of men.
“It is important that there be more awareness on the part of political officials, be they men or women, when it comes to creating leadership structures that are equitable in terms of gender or where women have the same opportunities.”Ana Castellani
In dialogue with Télam, Castellani explained that the universe where there is “full consolidated equity” since these reports began in 2019 is that of state workers who do not hold executive positions.
Meanwhile, in the intermediate sector where the Public Senior Management positions are located, an almost equal participation is observed “for the first time”, unlike previous years where, for example, in December 2010 only 21% of the positions they were occupied by women, he pointed out.
In the case of higher authorities (undersecretaries, secretariats and ministries) the biggest gap is seen “since day one” and that is where “more we have to work”indicated Castellani and explained that the hypothesis at this point is that in the highest positions the glass ceiling intervenes more strongly that “operates linked to the exercise of the executive role and the way in which it is masculinized.”
Invisible barriers for women
The glass ceiling refers to the invisible barriers that prevent the promotion of women to senior management positions in companies and organizations, and it is invisible because there are no regulations that impose an explicit limitation on the labor career of any person, but it operates as a social construction that establishes “expected roles” for women in the public and private space, according to the report.
“It is important that there be more awareness on the part of political officials, whether they are men or women, when it comes to creating leadership structures that are equitable in terms of gender or where women have the same opportunities,” said the official.
For Castellani, the creation of gender areas in each space and the instructions to ministries to form their cabinets were elements that played a very important role and made it possible to reduce this gap in different areas.
“There are areas of management that are more feminized, such as education, social development or health. This is historical and happens all over the world. There are other areas (economy, finance, energy) that generally have a male predominance. In those cases, you have to make concrete strategies,” he said.
And he highlighted the joint work carried out by the Ministry of Women and Public Employment so that in each department there is a gender area that “is behind these issues”, in addition to others such as the prevention of workplace violence and work with women to strengthen skills in the exercise of executive roles.
“The fact that the glass ceiling in senior public management has eroded is the most important piece of information for me because that link is more stable than that of higher authorities. We must continue working on this ‘movement of tweezers’ from above and below” , he remarked.
In this sense, he expressed that emphasis should be placed on training and training for the plant of workers who are today in numerical equality at the base of the APN offering training and leadership courses, team management, and public management or planning tools public policy monitoring.
According to the secretary, the exercise of feminine power is usually different from how it is traditionally conceived by men, and has to do with the “masculinized forms of the exercise of charges” that are not attractive to women and is what makes them “get away from wanting to pursue those functions”.
“It is necessary to work for the exercise of a more flexible leadership, be it for women or men, as well as for leadership with a gender perspective. In addition to strengthening the tools to allow women to balance their public responsibilities with care tasks who practice in different fields”he commented.
The results of the report indicated that the gender gap begins to be appreciated as you go up the hierarchical scale, although it also reveals the growth in the presence of women in Senior Public Management since 2019, and a strong increase to December 2022, with more than 10% compared to the previous year.
“There are more women with university degrees in public administration than men, the same thing happens in universities. So, it is not understood why they do not reach high positions. It is not that there are a lack of women or that they lack training. We must change the imaginary about what is the exercise of a managerial role”he assured.
Castellani said that “there is no model” to go down to all areas of the administration because “you have to be aware of the heterogeneity of situations and idiosyncrasies”, but that “change is being quite fast”.
“I was very happy to see the parity data in senior public management, that was achieved in less than three years and it seems very significant to me,” he concluded.
