Despite ministerial parity, women still underrepresented as senior cabinet, PMO staff

Nice to see this analysis being done by The Hill Times. Now they need to expand this to include visible minorities and Indigenous peoples:

Even though the Liberal cabinet was designed with gender parity in mind, women only represent 40 per cent of the senior staff supporting those ministers’ offices.

Those positions—made up of chiefs of staff and their deputies, directors of policy, communications, parliamentary affairs and senior advisers—are the gateways to ministers and the people who help shape political decisions, observers said.

“That’s where the primary influence is,” said Rachel Curran, former policy director to prime minister Stephen Harper. “Those are the people helping set the agenda in conjunction with the minister.”

While the Liberal government seems to have made more of an effort staffing women in political circles, Ms. Curran said having 60 per cent men in senior positions is “indicative that there is a problem there.”

Men held 98 of 162 positions, according to a Hill Times analysis using an October list exported from the government’s electronic directory services (GEDS) of all staff working for cabinet ministers and the Prime Minister’s Office, marked each by perceived gender, job title and cross-referenced with our records. While the public service annually reports staff numbers by gender, which is almost at parity at the executive level, no such data exists for political staff.

This is the second of a two-part series looking at women at senior political staff levels.

“Women still have a long way to go to be considered equal,” said Michele Austin, who was chief of staff to former Conservative minister Rona Ambrose, after reviewing The Hill Times’ staff lists. “Progress has been made, but certainly not in the senior staff rank.”

via Despite ministerial parity, women still underrepresented as senior cabinet, PMO staff – The Hill Times – The Hill Times