IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/b/esr/resser/rs66.html
   My bibliography  Save this book

A study of gender in senior civil service positions in Ireland

Author

Listed:
  • Russell, Helen
  • Watson, Dorothy
  • McCoy, Selina
  • Grotti, Raffaele
  • Kenny, Oona

Abstract

Women make up the majority of those employed in the civil service but are underrepresented at the most senior grades, where key policy and operational decisions are taken. Action 8 of the Civil Service Renewal Plan commits to improving gender balance at each level, including senior grades. The present study was commissioned by a high-level steering group set up to oversee implementation of this action. It draws on a combination of administrative data, reanalysis of the Civil Service Employee Engagement Survey conducted in 2015, and in-depth work history interviews with 50 senior civil servants across four departments. In addition, in-depth interviews were conducted with staff involved in recruitment and promotion within the public service. This rich combination of data yields new insights into the processes shaping gender differences in representation at the most senior grades of the civil service and thus provides a strong evidence base to inform future policy and practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Russell, Helen & Watson, Dorothy & McCoy, Selina & Grotti, Raffaele & Kenny, Oona, 2017. "A study of gender in senior civil service positions in Ireland," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number RS66, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:esr:resser:rs66
    Note: Publisher: ESRI
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.esri.ie/pubs/RS66.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Helen Russell & Philip J. O'Connell & Frances McGinnity, 2007. "The Impact of Flexible Working Arrangements on Work-Life Conflict and Work Pressure in Ireland," Papers WP189, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    2. McGinnity F & Russell H, 2011. "Workplace Equality in the Recession? The Incidence and Impact of Equality Policies and Flexible Working," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number BKMNEXT200.
    3. Yoshio Higuchi & Jane Waldfogel & Masahiro Abe, 1999. "Family leave policies and women's retention after childbirth: Evidence from the United States, Britain, and Japan," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 12(4), pages 523-545.
    4. Marieke Brink & Yvonne Benschop, 2014. "Gender in Academic Networking: The Role of Gatekeepers in Professorial Recruitment," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(3), pages 460-492, May.
    5. Russell, Helen & McGinnity, Fran & Kingston, Gillian, 2014. "Gender and the Quality of Work: From Boom to Recession," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number BKMNEXT264.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Russell, Helen & Grotti, Raffaele & McGinnity, Fran & Privalko, Ivan, 2019. "Caring and unpaid work in Ireland," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number BKMNEXT382.
    2. McGinnity, Frances & Grotti, Raffaele & Groarke, Sarah & Coughlan, Sarah, 2018. "Ethnicity and nationality in the Irish labour market," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number BKMNEXT369.
    3. Hingre, Garance & Russell, Helen (ed.), 2024. "Ireland’s Women in Finance Charter: Annual Report 2024," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number SUSTAT125.
    4. Acheson Jean & Collins Michael, 2021. "The gender pay gap in Revenue," Administration, Sciendo, vol. 69(3), pages 45-75, August.
    5. Shannon Laura, 2018. "Civil service, 2017," Administration, Sciendo, vol. 66(1), pages 9-16, February.
    6. Pauline Cullen & Mary P. Murphy, 2021. "Responses to the COVID‐19 crisis in Ireland: From feminized to feminist," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(S2), pages 348-365, July.
    7. Timmons, Shane & Lunn, Pete, 2022. "Public understanding of climate change and support for mitigation," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number RS135, December.
    8. Curristan, Sarah & Russell, Helen & McGinnity, Frances, 2023. "Ireland's Women in Finance Charter: Annual Report 2022," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number SUSTAT118.
    9. Enright, Shannen & Russell, Helen, 2020. "Gender balance at work: A study of an Irish Civil Service department," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number RS115, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Russell, Helen & McGinnity, Frances & Fahey, Éamonn & Kenny, Oona, 2018. "Maternal employment and the cost of childcare in Ireland," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number RS73, December.
    2. McGinnity, Frances & Grotti, Raffaele & Kenny, Oona & Russell, Helen, 2017. "Who experiences discrimination in Ireland? Evidence from the QNHS Equality Modules," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number BKMNEXT342.
    3. Gordon B. Dahl & Katrine V. Løken & Magne Mogstad & Kari Vea Salvanes, 2016. "What Is the Case for Paid Maternity Leave?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 98(4), pages 655-670, October.
    4. Song, Younghwan & Gao, Jia, 2018. "Does Telework Stress Employees Out? A Study on Working at Home and Subjective Well-Being for Wage/Salary Workers," IZA Discussion Papers 11993, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Lindsay M. Monte, 2015. "In the Absence of Leave: The Financial Coping Strategies of Disadvantaged New Mothers in the Great Recession," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 7(4), pages 420-435, December.
    6. Russell, Helen & Maitre, Bertrand & Watson, Dorothy, 2015. "Trends and Patterns in Occupational Health and Safety in Ireland," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number RS40.
    7. Helen Russell & Brendan Halpin & Mattias Strandh & Andrea Zielfe, 2006. "Comparing the Labour Market Effects of Childbirth in Ireland, Sweden, the UK and Germany," Papers WP170, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    8. Raquel Bernal & Adriana Camacho & Carmen Elisa FlÔøΩrez & Alejandro Gaviria, 2009. "Desarrollo econ√≥mico: retos y pol√≠ticas p√∫blicas," Documentos CEDE 5269, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    9. Esther Chan & Di Di & Elaine Howard Ecklund, 2024. "Scientists explain the underrepresentation of women in physics compared to biology in four national contexts," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 399-418, March.
    10. Vanda Papafilippou & Susan Durbin & Hazel Conley, 2022. "Women's formal networking: The relationship between networking activities and power," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 1712-1741, September.
    11. Ekaterina Uglanova & Jan Dettmers, 2018. "Sustained Effects of Flexible Working Time Arrangements on Subjective Well-Being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(6), pages 1727-1748, August.
    12. Pia S. Schober, 2012. "Parental Leave Policies and Child Care Time in Couples after Childbirth," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 434, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    13. Dorothea Alewell & Kerstin Pull, 2005. "Die Neugestaltung der Finanzierung des Mutterschutzes - ein Kommentar zum Mutterschutz-Urteil des Bundesverfassungsgerichtes," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 58(04), pages 22-27, February.
    14. Nadia Steiber, 2009. "Reported Levels of Time-based and Strain-based Conflict Between Work and Family Roles in Europe: A Multilevel Approach," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 93(3), pages 469-488, September.
    15. Michael Baker & Kevin Milligan, 2008. "How Does Job-Protected Maternity Leave Affect Mothers' Employment?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(4), pages 655-691, October.
    16. Benjamin U. Friedrich & Martin B. Hackmann, 2017. "The Returns to Nursing: Evidence from a Parental Leave Program," NBER Working Papers 23174, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Shoshana Grossbard & Tansel Yilmazer & Lingrui Zhang, 2018. "The Gender Gap in Citations: Lessons from Demographic Economics Journals," Working Papers 2018-078, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    18. repec:ilo:ilowps:365447 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Jérôme De Henau & Leila Maron & Danièle Meulders & Sile Padraigin O'Dorchai, 2007. "Travail et maternité en Europe: conditions de travail et politiques publiques," Brussels Economic Review, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles, vol. 50(1), pages 63-88.
    20. Annette Bergemann & Regina T. Riphahn, 2023. "Maternal employment effects of paid parental leave," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(1), pages 139-178, January.
    21. D. Checchi & S. Cicognani & N. Kulic, 2015. "Gender quotas or girls networks? Towards an understanding of recruitment in the research profession in Italy," Working Papers wp1047, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:esr:resser:rs66. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sarah Burns (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/esriiie.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.