IFG - Women Struggle for Top Spots in Civil Service

29 Sep 2015 10:31 AM

As the Cabinet Secretary announces the appointment of ‘diversity advisors’, new research finds historical failings to support women in reaching top civil service jobs.

Whitehall’s most senior figures are still much more likely to be men, despite the fact that today’s civil service is made up of more women, a new study finds.

Published by the Institute for Government, the report includes first-hand accounts of women who served in the senior civil service from 1979 until present day, for the first time comprehensively documenting what it was like to be a woman in that time.

The research highlights how several of the most senior jobs in government have also never been held by a woman, including the head of the civil service itself. A woman has never been the top official in charge of the Treasury or Foreign Office, and of the 12 principal private secretaries to the Prime Minister since 1983, all have been men.

While the civil service come a long way from the 1940s ‘marriage bar’—where it banned married women from employment—the study is clear that, until recently, women have not been supported to reach senior roles.

Institute for Government Fellow & Author Dr Catherine Haddon said:

“Whitehall has been a leader in the efforts to improve workforce diversity, but still struggles to translate this into gender balance at the top. External diversity advisors could help address this historical problem, but the experience of women in Whitehall over the last thirty years shows that senior officials and ministers need to consider the culture of its senior ranks, and the attributes it rewards, if it is to increase the number of women in top roles.”

Former permanent secretary at Ministry of Justice, Ursula Brennan, said in the report:

“We still have not achieved the level of diversity that you would expect if you look at the diversity of the talent that is available. So I am afraid that we have not fulfilled the promise of gender parity at the most senior levels of the Civil Service that those of us who joined the Fast Stream in the mid-1970s thought would be a reality for the new generation of officials”.

For more information please contact Nicole Valentinuzzi on 07850313791.

Notes to editors

• Full text of paper is published here: 

http://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publications/women-and-whitehall

• The project is sponsored by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and run in partnership with King’s College London.

• The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funds world-class, independent researchers in a wide range of subjects: ancient history, modern dance, archaeology, digital content, philosophy, English literature, design, the creative and performing arts, and much more. This financial year the AHRC will spend approximately £98m to fund research and postgraduate training in collaboration with a number of partners. The quality and range of research supported by this investment of public funds not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK.

The Institute for Government is an independent charity founded in 2008 to help make government more effective.