Much needs to be done to make workplace equality a reality but tangible progress has been made

In 2015, OECD Member countries adopted a Recommendation of the Council on Gender Equality in Public Life. To provide governments with more practical assistance, in early 2020, the organisation set up a Toolkit. It sets out effective measures to increase female participation and contains self-assessment tools so that institutions are able to systematically monitor their policies.   

But what is the actual state of play today? What gaps still remain and what initiatives have been introduced to try to address them?

Although wages should be equal as they must be based solely on qualifications, rank or the position held, when taken as a whole, they are still one of the root causes of gender inequality in the public sector.

In this respect, in 2017, Iceland became the first country in the world to adopt a Law on Equal Pay Certification in an amendment to the Gender Equality Act which applies to all employers and which must enter into force by 2022 at the latest. The legislation provides that the way in which qualifications, experience, responsibilities or job performance are evaluated and included in wage systems must be documented. This requirement is verified by means of audits followed by reports sent to employees and the unions. In addition, the legislation allows civil servants in a situation of proven discrimination to apply for compensation.

Equality in the workplace is gauged by comparing identical profiles at a given time, but it is actually the result of a number of components, that punctuate the career path and provide leverage to enable all women
- irrespective of their position in the hierarchy - to have the same opportunities as their male colleagues.

Although it has an employment-based civil service, Estonia has elected to factor in time devoted to parenting. Taking the line followed by innovative private businesses, the government decided that all periods of leave taken to raise a child will count towards career advancement in the same manner as periods of activity. In Australia, the city of Sydney pays superannuation during the unpaid parental leave period (34 weeks out of 52).

In Slovenia, breaking the glass ceiling preventing access to managerial roles has been an imperative over the last decade. With 56.1% of women in senior positions in the public sector, the country is now the European leader (the European average is 41.9%). This demonstrates that it is possible to maintain a balanced distribution - even by abandoning its initial quota rule - by proposing appropriate mechanisms for work-life balance. In Canada, which already has a very impressive global ranking, a more transparent selection process has helped bolster female representation. Since July 2019, women have accounted for 53% of appointments. As regards support measures, there are the Women in Leadership and Cross-Mentoring mentoring programmes in Ireland and Austria respectively. These programmes buttress career development by helping participants come up with a personal plan or strategy to take up leadership positions. 

Despite the plethora of regulations banning discrimination, in reality, high levels of female representation in professions often go hand-in-hand with less favourable conditions.  To address this, Switzerland, which received the United Nations Public Service Award in the “Promoting gender responsive public services to achieve the SDGs” category in 2018, began a process for the reassessment of responsibilities with professions that count more than 50% of women having been accorded more value by the improved recognition of psychosocial skillsets.