The Glass Ceiling in the Public Sector: A Case Study Regarding Romanian Elected and Appointed Officials
Managerial Challenges of the Contemporary Society, 2014, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 10-16
8 Pages Posted: 12 Aug 2015
Date Written: June 1, 2014
Abstract
Although the glass ceiling (the underrepresentation of women in top management and decision making positions) is largely connected in the academic literature with the private sphere, such practices are often (consciously or unconsciously) omnipresent in the public sphere as well.
Beside setting an unfortunate example for private entities, gender discrimination in the public field can lead to unbalanced public policies as female values are less represented than male values (in both design and implementation phase).
Using official data from the 2012 Romanian national (parliamentary) elections, our results show that women are consistently underrepresented as potential candidates for public decision making positions, while the ratio of females elected officials is significantly lower than that of males.
Furthermore, a glass ceiling phenomena can also be observed regarding appointed officials with decision making positions at the national (ministries and subordinated institutions) level.
Keywords: gender discrimination, the glass ceiling, elected officials, public servants
JEL Classification: J7, J78, D72
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation