This file was prepared for electronic distribution by the inforM staff. Questions or comments should be directed to inform-editor@umail.umd.edu. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS Conclusion A glass ceiling does exist in the Federal Government. It consists, in part, of factors that women can control, such as their education, experience, and mobility. It also consists of factors outside of women's control such as unfounded judgments about their lack of job commitment and their ability to do their jobs well. Increasing the representation of women in higher graded jobs is a slow process. Only a small percentage of employees in higher graded jobs are promoted to the next level each year. More importantly, promotion rates for women in GS 9 and GS 11 jobs in Professional occupations are lower than for men in those jobs. This disparity has a significant impact on the number of women in higher graded jobs, as the GS 9-11 grades are the gateway between entry-level jobs and senior-level jobs for most employees. Managers have traditionally relied on both formal and informal criteria in evaluating a candidate for a promotion, developmental program, or significant work assignment. In addition to looking at qualifications such as experience and education, many managers consider an employee's commitment to his or her career and desire for advancement. While it is certainly useful to consider these factors, care must be taken to use valid indicators reasonably related to future job success. Assumptions are often made, for example, that an employee who devotes extra time to the job each week, above and beyond 40 hours, is automatically more committed, more career-oriented, and generally a better employee than one who devotes "only" 40 hours aweek. Without tying in productivity and output, however, this could easily be a wrong assumption in any given situation. It's certainly possible for a well-organized, highly capable 40-hour-a-week employee to consistently outproduce a less capable, less organized 50-hour-a-week employee. Stated another way, productivity and contributions to the organization are better indicators of job commitment than mere time spent on the job. Similarly, assumptions are often made that an employee who has relocated geographically for job-related reasons is a better candidate for promotion than one who has not. In some cases this may be true, but in others it is probably not. Without a demonstrated link between geographic mobility and the ability to perform a particular job, this assumption may be invalid and can have negative consequences for women. Women often bear a greater share of family responsibilities and, for this reason, some women have less flexibility than men with regard to their personal time and mobility, (while still others are simply assumed to have less flexibility). Therefore, the use of this criterion, when it is not appropriate, can improperly result in fewer women being promoted. This can occur despite the fact that women are as interested as men in advancing their careers and, on average, receive performance ratings equal to those obtained by men. A significant number of women believe that they confront other attitudes and stereotypes which make it more difficult for them to do their jobs and advance in their careers. These include assumptions that women, in general, don't have the necessary qualifications for their jobs and have been advanced only to achieve affirmative action goals. Women's perceptions are not without basis, as our survey results and other studies have shown that such stereotypes often do exist. And some research shows that such impressions of women are even more likely to occur when women are few in number in a particular job or situation. These kinds of stereotypes can create an environment that curtails women's effectiveness, self-confidence, and job satisfaction. To the extent that perceptions or stereotypes have such an effect, some women may be reluctant to pursue promotional opportunities, thereby increasing the probability that women will remain few in number in top-level jobs. Our data also suggest that minority women face a double disadvantage. They are promoted even less often than nonminority women with the same amount of formal education and Government experience. In many cases, minority women feel the effects of what they perceive to be gender-based disparate treatment at work even more acutely than nonminority women. The extent to which these factors operate almost certainly varies from agency to agency and among organizations within each agency. The results presented in this study represent effects occurring, in general across Government. While we did not find isolation from informal networks of men to be a barrier to women's advancement in Government overall for example, such exclusionary networks could well exist in some organizations. Similarly, it is highly unlikely that all organizations value geographic relocations equally. The Government is dedicated to ensuring it has a diverse workforce, and equal opportunity for advancement for all employees. These objectives are not being met in full largely because of a subtle, almost invisible, glass ceiling. The opportunity to eliminate the underrepresentation of women in top-level jobs exists now, more than ever, as more women than men are entering the Federal workforce. Given the slow process of career advancement, all Federal agencies need to begin now to make a determined effort to eliminate barriers and ensure that women have opportunities to advance in their careers. If women entering Government today are to see parity in senior-level jobs by the time they retire from their Federal careers, agencies must take concerted action to break the glass ceiling. Our forecasting model shows that given current trends, women will continue to represent less than one-third of the Government's senior executives 25 years into the future. As long as women are in the minority in top-level jobs, stereotypes that limit their effectiveness and make it more difficult for them to advance are likely to remain in force. Traditional criteria for evaluating commitment to the job and advancement potential have helped to perpetuate this cycle. Unless efforts are made to reexamine these criteria and to reduce the effect of stereotypes, women will continue to be constrained in their efforts to advance, and the Government will continue to underutilize a valuable resource. Recommendations * The Government should reaffirm its commitment to equal employment opportunity in the Civil Service and each Federal agency should make special efforts to increase the representation of women in senior positions. In accordance with the objectives set forth in the Civil Service Reform Act, agencies should ensure that women are actively recruited to apply for higher graded job vacancies. Concerted efforts involving all managers and supervisors, personnel and Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) officers, and Federal Women's Program Managers, will be required. Women hold less than half of all Professional and Administrative jobs above grade GS 9, and less than one quarter of these jobs above grade GS 12. In addition, promotions above the midlevel into supervisory and management levels do not occur very often. For these reasons, recruitment for higher graded jobs may need to be expanded beyond the usual area of consideration in order to ensure that the applicant pool includes a sufficient number of women. Without an active effort to increase the representation of women at senior levels, women are likely to remain in the minority in these jobs for many years to come. Even greater efforts need to be made to increase the representation of minority women at senior levels. * Managers should reexamine the formal and informal criteria they use to evaluate employees' potential for advancement, especially when these criteria are used in making selections for developmental training, career-enhancing work assignments, and promotions. Managers should rexamine the assumptions that may be underlying their decisions as to whom to develop. They should ensure they are evaluating employees' promotion potential based on the quality and quantity of their work, and stated interest in advancement, rather than their availability to work overtime or to relocate, unless there is a specific reason to do so. Managers should ensure that they are not making unwarranted assumptions that career advancement is incompatible with family responsibilities, thereby forcing employees to choose between the two. * Managers should seek to curtail, within themselves and their organizations, any expressions of stereotypes or attitudes which create an environment hostile to the advancement of women. A substantial minority of women believe that their competence is unfairly doubted by those they work with. Previous research on stereotypes and sex-typing of jobs demonstrates the pervasiveness and detrimental effects of these perceptions. Managers should look for, and work to preclude, in themselves and throughout their organizations, expression of these stereotypes and other behavior which may fuel women's perceptions that they are not valued or respected. Managers should give qualified women opportunities to demonstrate their abilities in jobs and assigmnents traditionally associated with men, as well as ensuring that women are not always given assigmnents or roles traditionally associated with women. They should be aware that in situations where women are very few in number, they are often viewed as "tokens," and stereotypes may be reinforced. Assuring participation by several women on a task force or in a meeting can highlight the diversity among women and help to diminish stereotypes. * Women should take full advantage of opportunities to increase their competitiveness and demonstrate their abilities, and agencies should make these opportunities available. Women should increase their own advancement potential by taking advantage of opportunities to do so within and outside the Government. Education is an important factor in career advancement, and, where possible, women should consider pursuing additional education. A majority of women who responded to the survey also reported that specialized or technical training, formal developmental programs or managerial training, developmental assignments, the opportunity to act in a position prior to appointment, and/or having a mentor had helped them in their career advancement. Agencies should make these programs and opportunities available to women wherever possible, and women who wish to advance should seek them out. Some of these programs provide opportunities for women to demonstrate their abilities and thus reduce their own and others' perceptions that women are not as competent as men. * Agencies should conduct their own assessment of barriers to advancement for women. The conclusions stated in this report are based on a Governmentwide assessment of the career advancement process. In recognition of the diversity of Federal agencies, and subunits within agencies, the Board recommends that each agency and/or agency subunit use the broad findings outlined in this report to develop studies of the career advancement process and the effects of any glass ceiling that may exist in their organization. Agencies and subunits, in consultation with their Federal Women's Program Managers, should develop their own means for assessing barriers within their organizations. But we recommend in addition that they analyze their accession, promotion and separation rates to see whether significantly different rates exist between men and women at any grade level, and, if so, why. They should evaluate the climate within their agencies to determine the extent to which women may be working in an environment which they perceive as hostile to their productivity or advancement.