Women have ‘transformed’ the PS, except at the very top

Interesting study by Marika Morris of Carleton (disclosure: know Marika from my time in government and I was interviewed for the study). Diversity of mindset is the hardest issue to address, given the normal homogenizing influence of corporate and public sector cultures:

Women have broken all gender barriers in Canada’s public service in ways few countries can boast — until they hit the deputy ministers’ “club” where some complain there’s little “diversity of mindset,” says a new report.

It’s among the findings of a new Carleton University study, Women’s Leadership Matters, into the impact of female leadership on the public service, where women now hold more than 55 per cent of the jobs and 46 per cent of all executive positions below deputy ministers.

At the top, however, women haven’t made the same progress. They held about one-third of the deputy minister jobs when the study was conducted between 2014 and 2015.

Marika Morris, an adjunct research professor who led the study, said women and visible minorities do well when hiring is based on open, merit-based competitions, but they “don’t do as well” when the prime minister makes “at pleasure” appointments into deputy minister jobs.

The study is part of the Women in Public Service Project, run by the Washington-based Wilson Centre, aimed at getting women into 50 per cent of the world’s public service jobs by 2050.

Canada already stands out in the world with a public service that exceeds the 50-per-cent female target. This study examined the impact women are having on shaping the public service and whether that impact could be measured.

The study, based on 26 in-depth interviews with former and current executives, comes 25 years after the milestone 1990 report of the Task Force on Barriers to Women in the Public Service.

Morris said the process of picking executives up to the assistant deputy minister level was seen as fair and rigorous, but that it “became more mysterious and less transparent” for deputy minister appointments.

Morris said women have made such huge inroads at the senior levels that the perception of the top ranks being an “old boys’ club” no longer exists.

There is, however, a perception of a “certain mindset” among deputy ministers and a preconceived notion of what a leader is “so they pick people who look like them and that becomes difficult to change,” said Morris.

“Just because we have more women and visible minorities, it doesn’t mean we’re truly diverse if we keep promoting people like us. Typically introverts, economists, policy wonks … There is a typology if you look at who gets promoted,” one respondent said.

Morris said such concerns were raised by only a few respondents but were strong enough to warrant further study.

Women have ‘transformed’ the PS, except at the very top