Women in the APS

The representation of women in the APS continued to rise this year, indeed, at a faster rate than in the past. At 30 June 2005, women represented 54.2% of all ongoing staff, up from 53.1% the previous year.

Women represented 58.0% of engagements in 2004–05, compared with 46.3% of separations. If this trend continues, it will lead to an increase in the feminisation of the APS.

The proportional representation of men and women varies strongly between agencies. Of agencies with more than 1000 ongoing employees, BoM had the highest proportion of men (81.3%), followed by Defence (64.4%), while CRS (83.8%) and CSA (74.0%) had the highest proportion of women (see Figure 9.1).

Figure 9.1: Representation of women and men in agencies with more than 1000 ongoing employees, June 2005

Source: APSED

As Table 9.2 shows, women continue to be under-represented at higher classifications, although there have been significant gains over time.

Table 9.2: Ongoing staff: proportion of women by classification group, June 2005

Source: APSED

Women represented 40.3% of EL employees at June 2005 (up from 39.3% in 2004). As Figure 9.2 shows, while women comprised only 33.8% of engagements to EL classifications, they represented 46.8% of promotions to these classifications. In addition, women made up only 34.7% of separations, so further increases in the representation of women in these classifications can be expected.

Figure 9.2: Ongoing staff: Engagement and promotion rates for women, June 2005

Source: APSED

At June 2005, women represented 33.0% of the SES (up from 31.5% in 2004). This increase in representation can be expected to continue, given that 28.0% of engagements and 45.7% of promotions to, and within, the SES were women compared to 23.9% of separations.

Table 9.3 shows that women’s representation in both the EL and SES classification groups is higher for younger age groups, adding further to the evidence that the representation of women at these levels will continue to increase over time.

Table 9.3: Ongoing staff: Proportion of women by age group in EL and SES classifications, June 2005

Source: APSED

Overall, the positive trend towards increased representation of women at higher levels of the APS is continuing, or possibly accelerating, with no sign of stalling. However, despite the appointment of several women to the role of agency head in the last year, there is still room for improvement in the representation of women at this level. More broadly, the variation in the representation of women at higher levels across agencies suggests that quite a few agencies could be more pro-active in encouraging women to apply for more senior positions.

Agency support for the employment of women

The employee survey asked about employees’ perceptions of whether their agency supported the employment, development and promotion of women, Indigenous employees, people with a disability and employees from a NESB1. Employees were most likely to have agreed that their agency supported the employment, development and promotion of women and people from all cultural backgrounds.

The majority of employees (79%) agreed that their agency actively supported the employment, development and promotion of women, and only four per cent disagreed. Of the 21 large agencies, only one large agency had a particularly low level of agreement (59%). The level of agreement for all other large agencies varied from 72% to 87%.

The majority of women responding to the employee survey (74%) agreed that their agency actively supported the employment, development and promotion of women. However, women were less likely to have agreed than men (74% compared to 84%) and more likely to have disagreed (6% compared to 2% for men). Some employees commented on their agency’s support for women.

This year the survey also asked whether employees thought that their agency needed to do more or less to support women. Only one-fifth of employees felt that their agency needed to do more (16%) or much more (4%) to support the employment, development and promotion of women. Of interest are the results for large agencies with low representations of women, which do not show significant differences from other agencies with respect to the need to provide more support for women. The majority of employees (69%) were satisfied with the level of support provided to women. Twenty-seven per cent of women, however, felt that their agency needed to do more to support them, compared with 12% of men.

Job satisfaction and other employee indicators—women

The employee survey asked respondents to choose the five workplace factors (out of a list of 15) that impacted most on how satisfied they were with their job. Respondents were then asked to indicate their level of satisfaction with their top five factors using a five point scale (from ‘very satisfied’ to ‘very dissatisfied’).

A summary index was created from the results of the job satisfaction question in the employee survey. The index ranges from zero (respondent was very dissatisfied with all of the factors nominated) to 10 (respondent was very satisfied with all factors). An index of five translates to a respondent being, on average, neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with their nominated factors.

The APS-wide results on job satisfaction are discussed in Chapter 8. Results on job satisfaction in this chapter are limited to discussion of results in relation to EEO and age groups.⁹

As in 2003–04, women reported similar levels of overall job satisfaction to men; 72% were, on average, satisfied with the factors they nominated as important, compared to 70% of men.¹⁰ Table 9.4 shows the most important job satisfaction factors for women and men. This year all of the most important factors were common to women and men except for ‘opportunities to develop my skills’ (rated as a top five factor only by women) and ‘opportunities to utilise my skills’ (rated as a top five factor only by men). However, Table 9.4 shows that the relative rankings of these factors differ between men and women. The most important factor for women was ‘good working relationships’ with 57% of women rating this in their top five factors and 84% of women being satisfied with this factor. Men ranked this factor second, and only 46% of men rated this in their top five factors, although they were equally satisfied with the factor. Interesting results are also evident for the factor ‘salary’ which women ranked equal fifth, with 42% of women including ‘salary’ as one of their top five factors and 56% of women being satisfied with this factor. By comparison, men ranked ‘salary’ as their most important factor, with 50% of men rating it among their top five, yet only 42% of men were satisfied with this factor. These differences perhaps reflect different motivators for men and women.

Many of the top five factors common to women and men were also likely to be in the top five factors for other EEO groups and younger and older workers examined later in this chapter.

Table 9.4: Most important job satisfaction factors, by sex, 2004–05

Note: The ‘per cent satisfied’ includes only those respondents who selected the factor and then rated their satisfaction.

Source: Employee survey

Table 9.4 also shows the proportion of each group satisfied with the factors they had identified as important. The majority of women were satisfied with each of the six job satisfaction factors they identified as most important, and the majority of men were satisfied with four (out of six) of their most important job satisfaction factors. Of the top factors, both women and men were least satisfied with ‘salary’ and ‘regular feedback/ recognition for effort’. A higher proportion of women were more satisfied than men with ‘salary’, and a higher proportion of men were dissatisfied with this factor (34%) than women (22%). Women were more satisfied than men with ‘regular feedback/recognition for effort’; the proportion of women and men dissatisfied with this factor was similar.

Women were less likely than men to regard themselves as ‘a career public servant’ (19% and 27%, respectively) than ‘a member of their profession’ (15% compared to 20%). Women were also more likely to agree that they were proud to work in the APS (75% compared to 67% of men).

In other responses to the employee survey men (19%) were more likely than women (13%) to indicate that they intended to leave the APS in the next three years. While many of the reasons for leaving were similar for both women and men, men were more likely than women to report that they intended to leave due to limited career development opportunities (30% compared to 22% of relevant women).

As with the job satisfaction index reported above, a summary index¹¹ was created from the results of the leadership capability question in the employee survey.¹² Women and men, overall, provided similar ratings of their immediate supervisor’s leadership capability, with about two-thirds of women and men rating their immediate supervisor’s overall leadership capability above average. A similar proportion of women and men (about 50%) rated their immediate supervisor as highly effective at managing people.

9 It is important to note that discussion of job satisfaction in this chapter is based on analysis of results for, at times, small populations and is indicative only. The five most important factors chosen and rated by respondents have been highlighted as a useful point of comparison, including across the four EEO groups (i.e. women, Indigenous Australians, people with a disability and people from NESB).

10 In this context the results were not statistically significant at the 95% Confidence Interval (see Appendix 2 for more information on confidence intervals).

11 The index ranges from zero (respondent rated their immediate supervisor as very low on all five capabilities) to 10 (rated their immediate supervisor as very high on all five capabilities). An index of five translates to a respondent rating their supervisor, on average, ‘medium’ on all five leadership capabilities.

12 These capabilities reflect the five capabilities in the Senior Executive Leadership Capability Framework (the SELC framework).

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