Almost twice as many women as men are employed at the APS levels in the public service, but men continue to dominate the top jobs, with almost a third more male than female senior executives, according to the APS Statistical Bulletin 2013-14.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The data, which also tracks the number of public servants employed each year from 2000-2014, reveals the number of women filling graduate and APS level one to six positions has come a long way in the past 14 years.
About 16 per cent more women than men were employed in 2000 compared to the 40 per cent more women than men employed last year.
In 2014, there were 98,088 women and 59,271 men working for Australian federal departments in this bracket.
Consequently, the percentage of women making up the Australian Public Service (APS) as a whole has grown substantially.
The APS was home to 145,891 public servants last year including 26.5 per cent more women (84,078) than men (61,813).
Of the 103,076 employed in 2000, slightly more public servants were male, with 51,604 men and 51,472 women.
Former high-ranking public servant, Emeritus Professor Meredith Edwards, said while the figures showed a forward trend, they didn't reveal the uneven proportions of women spread across Commonwealth departments.
"If you look at Treasury [and] Defence, you'll find there's a much, much higher proportion of men than women compared to, say, the Department of Social Services, Health [or] Education," she said.
Professor Edwards, from the University of Canberra's Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis, said there was still unconscious bias in the public service, with only a handful of women heading Commonwealth departments.
"Although we've got a trend that's going forward, it's easy to go backwards," she said.
"There's a lot of unconscious bias. Merit, primarily, is not actually merit - there's a lot of cloning that goes on."
Higher up the ranks, 33 per cent more men than women were employed at the senior executive level last year, with 1530 male senior executives compared to 1026 female senior executives.
This data includes SES levels one to three.
The divide was twice as large more than a decade ago with about two-thirds more men than women employed at the top levels in 2000, including just 390 women compared to 1161 men.
Meanwhile, almost 10 per cent more men than women were employed at the executive levels in 2014, with 20,719 men at executive 1 and 2 level compared to 18,665.
.
Rewind to the year 2000 and there were twice as many men than women taking home an executive pay packet, including 13,054 men and 6339 women.
Last year's gender divide was much more even among graduate and trainee public servants with slightly more women forging their APS careers.
There were just 11 more women than men employed last year, with 769 female grads and trainees compared to 758 men.
Fourteen years earlier there was a greater portion of women employed in these lower-level positions, with 732 female starters compared to 630 men, or 14 per cent more women.
Adjunct Professor Carmel McGregor, also from the institute, said the results demonstrated a clear improvement in the participation of women overall.
"This gives hope for young women in particular to be able to see a pathway they can pursue for a career in the APS," she said.
"Having a number of role models in the senior ranks will give hope to those starting out. Now we just need to see this realised in an increase in the number of women secretaries."
