You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby, but You Still Have a Long Way to Go: Gender-Based Pay Inequality in U.S. State Bureaucracies, 1995-2015

Abstract

Previous research on gender-based inequality in public-sector state-level bureaucracies finds evidence of glass ceilings and glass walls; however, previous research does not evaluate these factors together, nor does this research extend beyond the late 1990s. This study uses newly available data from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)—data spanning from 1995 to 2015 that include the entire universe of female and male administrators—to evaluate this research question: Are gender-based pay disparities and glass walls among administrators in state-level bureaucracies related to the policy/program missions of state agencies? This study observes administrative-level gender-based pay disparities in all state agency types. Furthermore, this study finds evidence of occupational segregation or glass walls in distributive and regulatory agencies, but not in redistributive agencies. The findings indicate some progress for women; however, as recently as 2015, U.S. state bureaucracies, on average, did not achieve gender equity among their administrative ranks.