Women outperform men in getting senior jobs in Civil Service, report finds

Women are outperforming men to secure top posts in the Civil Service, a new report prepared for Government shows.

The most recent report of the Top Level Appointments Committee given to Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe in February to cover 2022 says that, over the previous three years, more women were recommended by it for appointment to senior positions than men – even though more men than women had applied for posts.

“In 2022, 54 per cent of recommendations were for woman candidates and 46 per cent were for male candidates. For the last three years a higher percentage of women have been appointed at the top grades in the Civil Service.”

The committee assesses candidates and makes recommendations to Ministers for posts at secretary general, deputy secretary general and assistant secretary general or equivalent.

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The report says that, in 2022, of the 486 eligible application, 64 per cent were male and 36 per cent were woman. By the time of the final interview stage, the gender balance was virtually equal – 51 per cent male and 49 per cent woman.

However, ultimately of the 28 recommendations to Ministers for appointments to senior management positions, 54 per cent were women and 46 per cent were men.

The appointments committee over recent years has expressed concern at a lack of diversity among those seeking and securing top positions.

The 2022 report says that it is “desirable that the composition of the Civil Service should broadly reflect the ethnic make-up of the community”.

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The report for 2021 maintained starkly that there was still no ethnic diversity in the pool of candidates currently coming to preliminary and final interview stage, notwithstanding an “increasingly varied ethnic intake into the workforce”.

The 2022 report for the first time provides details of the nationality and ethnicity of those applying for senior posts. About 90 per cent of applicants described themselves as white Irish or declined to reply. Just over 4 per cent said they were white of another background.

About 3 per cent described themselves as being of Asian or Asian-Irish ethnicity. There was one candidate of black/black-Irish-African background.

The report says while this data regarding the ethnic backgrounds of applicants is quite limited, it represents “a step in the right direction and will set the building blocks for more robust reporting going forward”.

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The 2022 appointments committee report says that although a greater number of eligible applicants in that year came from outside the Civil Service (58 per cent), the success rate for serving civil servants securing recommendation for appointment to a senior position is greater than for those from the outside the Civil Service.

“In 2022, 82 per cent of candidates recommended for appointment were from the Civil Service.”

Meanwhile, an analysis carried out by The Irish Times of secretaries generals running Government departments has found that very many were educated in the public system in schools run by Christian Brothers, religious orders of nuns or in community schools. Some joined the Civil Service straight after the Leaving Cert and secured their third-level degrees in night study or later in their careers. However, several have now qualifications from highly acclaimed universities abroad.

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