Gender Attitudes among Public Employees: A Comparative Analysis

• In Event: Gender and Public Opinion

Abstract

The literature on Public Service Motivation (PSM) has studied how public employees in serving public institutions are more likely to commit to values that represent their desire to benefit the public’s best interest (Perry and Wise 1990). Other studies have shown that these employees demonstrate more altruistic (Rainey 1997) and democratic attitudes (Blair and Garand 1995; Conway 2000) than employees from the private sector.

There is abundant research about the motivations that drive public employees’ desire to perform public and social service. However, there is scarce research on bureaucrats´ attitudes on gender issues. Considering that gender equality is a critical dimension of democratic consolidation (Ionescu 2018) we would expect that public employees defend public interest and democratic values by exhibiting attitudes that promote gender equality.

The article shows that bureaucrats’ attitudes on gender equality play a significant role in expanding the scope of the literature on public service motivation. Using data from the most recent wave of World Values Survey – WVS (2017-2020) covering 77 countries, this study compares the gender attitudes of public-sector workers against general gender attitudes. These attitudes include dimensions related to the labor market, politics, among others.

We also analyze that those attitudes are conditional on structural opportunities for women in the countries using the Gender Inequality Index using the UN data. Finally, we study the conditional effect of individual characteristics such as education, religion, and age. Findings show that public employees tend to have attitudes that favor gender equality. However, that effect is contingent on the gender inequality context in which public servants operate.

The theoretical contribution of this work is to enrich the literature on public service motivation, public administration, and gender studies by understanding how public employees can internalize and promote gender values that affect gender inclusion in democratic contexts.

References:

Blair, William, and James C. Garand. 1995. Are bureaucrats different? Democratic values, political tolerance, and support for the political system among government employees and other citizens, 1982–1992. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, IL, August 31–September 3

Conway, Margaret M. 2000. Political participation in the United States. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press.

Ionescu, L. (2018). Gender inequality in political democracy: electoral accountability, women’s representation in government, and perceived corruption. Journal of Research in Gender Studies, 8(1), 165-171.

Perry, James L., and Lois R. Wise. 1990. The motivational bases of public service. Public Administration Review 50:367–73

Rainey, 1997. Understanding and managing public organizations. 2nd ed. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Authors

• Nathalie Mendez, Universidad de los Andes

• Claudia N. Avellaneda, Indiana University