This file was prepared for electronic distribution by the inforM staff. Questions or commenst should be directed to inform-editor@umail.umd.edu. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Women are an integral part of the Federal workorce, holding nearly half of white collar jobs in the Government. Yet they still hold a small percentage of senior-level and executive positions in the executive branch. Is the poor representation of women in higher graded jobs due to the existence of a glass ceiling? That is, are there subtle barriers, bearing no relationship to women's career decisions or qualifications, which limit their advancement? Or do men continue to dominate senior positions because they have more experience, more formal education, and greater commitment to career advancement than women? The U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board sought to answer these questions in this study of career advancement in the Federal Government. The Board found that barriers do exist that have resulted in women, overall, being promoted less often over the course of their Government careers than men with comparable education and experience. Women are promoted at a lower rate than men in grade levels and occupations that are important gateways to advancement. The women we surveyed express the same level of commitment to their jobs and careers as men, and women receive the same or better performance ratings as men, but their potential for advancement is often underestimated by managers using criteria which they traditionally have seen as a way to measure job commitment and advancement potential. A significant minority of women also believe they are confronted by stereotypes which cast doubts on their competence. The Board suggests that because advancement to senior levels is a slow process, the imbalance in the percentage of women in high grades can be corrected within a reasonable time frame only through concerted action. Recommended actions include a reaffirmation of the Government's commitment to equal opportunity, including ensuring that recruitment for senior positions is broad enough to encompass sufficient numbers of qualified women. The Board further recommends that managers make opportunities available for women to increase their competitiveness and demonstrate their abilities, actively discourage expressions of stereotypes of women at work, and reassess the validity of the criteria they use to evaluate an employee's potential for advancement. Almost as many women as men are now employed in white collar jobs in the Federal executive branch, yet only about 1 out of every 4 supervisors and 1 out of every 10 executives are women. Studies outside of the Federal Government have shown that women at work often face subtle barriers--or what has come to be known as a "glass ceiling"--which constrain their career advancement. If such barriers exist in the Federal sector, the Government is paying a cost. It is underutilizing a major segment of its human resources and delaying attainment of an important goal of the Civil Service Reform Act; i.e., full representation of all segments of society at all grade levels in Government. The U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB or the Board) has the statutory responsibility to report periodically to Congress and the President on the health of the Civil Service and other merit systems. In partial fulfillment of this responsibility, MSPB undertook an analysis of career advancement in the executive branch workforce. The study described in this report was designed to examine the process for career progression in the white-collar workforce, and the nature and extent of any barriers women may confront in that process. It included data from three sources: the U.S. Office of Personnel Management's Central Personnel Data File; focus groups of senior level (GS/GM 13-15) and senior executive (Senior Executive Service or SES) men and women and a Governmentwide survey mailed to a sample of 13,000 employees in grades GS/GM 9-15 and the SES. A subsequent study will address any barriers which may confront minorities in the executive branch workforce Findings * Women do confront inequitable barriers to advancement in their Federal careers. These barriers take the form of subtle assumptions, attitudes, and stereotypes which affect how managers sometimes view women's potential for advancement and, in some cases, their effectiveness on the job. * Contrary to conventional wisdom, women are not promoted at a lower rate than men at the GS/GM 13 level and above, but rather face obstacles to advancement at lower levels in the pipeline. Women in Professional occupations are promoted at a lower rate than men at two critical grades, GS 9 and GS 11. As these grades are the gateway through which one must pass in moving from the entry level to the senior level this disparity has the effect of reducing the number of women eligible for promotion in higher graded jobs. Results from a Governmentwide survey of employees currently in grades GS 9-15 and the SES confirm that women at these levels have been promoted, on average, less often over the course of their Government careers than men who have comparable amounts of formal education and experience, and who entered Government at the same grade levels as the women. * Given current trends, the percentage of Professional and Administrative jobs held by women will grow from 34 percent in 1990 to 42 percent by 2017. But even by 2017 women will remain significantly underrepresented in senior levels, holding less than one-third of senior executive positions. Unless action is taken, a dramatic increase in the representation of women in higher graded jobs will be precluded both by the slow process of advancement into higher graded jobs in general, and by the lower rate of promotion encountered by women. * Women receive performance appraisals that are as good as or better than men's, and women surveyed expressed just as much commitment to their jobs and career advancement as men. However, there is evidence to suggest that women are often perceived to be less committed to their jobs than men. Particularly susceptible to this misperception are women in the first 5 years of their careers and, throughout their careers, women with children, who are promoted at an even lower rate than women without children. * A significant minority of women in grades GS 9 and above believe they often encounter stereotypes that cast doubts on their competence, and that attribute their advancement to factors other than their qualifications. * Minority women appear to face a double disadvantage. Their representation at top levels is even less than that of nonminority women, and minority women currently in grades GS 9 and above have been, on average, promoted less often than nonminority women with the same qualifications. Recommendations 1. The Government should reaffirm its commitment to equal employment opportunity and agencies should make special efforts to increase the representation of women in senior positions in the civil service. Because women are found in a minority of Professional and Administrative jobs above the midlevel, and because career advancement is slow above this level, agencies should make special efforts to ensure that women and, in particular, minority women, are included in the applicant pool. 2. Managers should evaluate the formal and informal criteria they may be using to evaluate employees' potential for advancement, especially when these criteria are used in making selections for developmental training career-enhancing work assignments, and promotions. Managers should consider whether they are using criteria for evaluating employees' commitment to the job and potential for advancement that have little or no relationship to the quality of the employees' work or actual job requirements. Decisions about whom to develop should be based on an employee's qualifications, performance, and expressed desire for advancement. Managers need to recognize that results obtained are more important than the numbers of hours of overtime worked. 3. Managers should seek to curtail, within themselves and their organizations, any expressions of stereotypes or attitudes which may create an environment hostile to the advancement of women. Managers should encourage an environment conducive to the advancement of women by reexamining their own and their subordinates' attitudes and deportment, and actively discouraging expressions of stereotypes or behavior that reinforce negative stereotypes of women at work. Managers can further help to allay these stereotypes by giving qualified women opportunities to demonstrate their abilities in assignments traditionally thought to require male attributes. 4. Women should take full advantage of opportunities to increase their competitiveness and demonstrate their abilities, and agencies should make these opportunities available. Women, individually, can increase their potential for advancement by pursuing additional education and developmental programs available within the Government. Agencies should also actively ensure that women have access to developmental programs and other opportunities to augment their qualifications and demonstrate their abilities. Agencies should conduct their own assessment of barriers to advancement for women. The results of this study are based on a Governmentwide view of the career advancement process and do not capture the diversity that is certain to occur among agencies. Agencies should use the broad findings of this report to develop specific assessments of barriers which may be impeding the advancement of women within their own organizations.