The Nexus Between Gender and Perceived Career Opportunities Evidence From the U.S. Federal Government

• Published in: Public personnel management Vol. 44; no. 3; pp. 375 - 400
• Main Authors: Wynen, Jan, op de Beeck, Sophie, Ruebens, Silke
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.09.2015; Sage Publications, Inc; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Career development; Careers; Civil Rights Legislation; Disproportionate Representation; Economic aspects; Federal employees; Federal government; Females; Gender; Gender differences; Gender Discrimination; Gender equality; Gender equity; Gender pay gap; Government employees; Human resource management; Labor Force; Labor law; Laws, regulations and rules; Males; Managerial Occupations; Occupations; Opportunities; Perceptions; Salary Wage Differentials; Segregation; Studies; Surveys; Teaching Methods; Upward mobility; Women; Workforce; United States; United States > US; gender; career opportunities; heterogeneous choice approach
• ISSN: 0091-0260; 1945-7421
• DOI: 10.1177/0091026015588194

Although the horizontal representation of women in the U.S. workforce has significantly increased, numerous studies have found that there is still a substantial underrepresentation of women at high-level positions. In light of this fact, this article examines differences in perceived career opportunities between men and women in the federal workforce as well as the evolution of these differences between 2006 and 2013. To do this, a heterogeneous choice model is used to examine representative samples of two waves of the U.S. federal employee viewpoint survey. We come to the finding that a difference in perceived career opportunities exists and, surprisingly, that this difference did not decrease or increase during the examined time period.