Two Tales of Cities: Revisiting Sex-Based Occupational Segregation in U.S. Municipal Bureaucracies, 1991-2015

• Author: Brinck Kerr,Larra Rucker,Valerie H. Hunt
• Published date: 01 June 2020
• DOI: 10.1177/0091026019854467
• Date: 01 June 2020
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026019854467

Public Personnel Management

2020, Vol. 49(2) 171 –192

© The Author(s) 2019

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/0091026019854467

journals.sagepub.com/home/ppm

Article

Two Tales of Cities:

Revisiting Sex-Based

Occupational Segregation

in U.S. Municipal

Bureaucracies, 1991-2015

Valerie H. Hunt1,

Larra Rucker1, and Brinck Kerr1

Abstract

Drawing upon 24 years (1991-2015) of U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity

Commission data, we ask whether sex-based occupational segregation among

professional and administrative employees in municipal bureaucracies is related to

agency policy missions. We evaluate occupational segregation using two different

benchmarks, 30% women and 50% women. At the 30% threshold in distributive and

regulatory agencies, our findings suggest erosion of glass walls among professional

workforces, but widespread occupational segregation among administrative

workforces. At the 50% benchmark, we find a different story. Most cities reach or

exceed gender parity in redistributive agencies; however, we observe widespread

occupational segregation among administrative and professional workforces in

distributive and regulatory agencies. Patterns of sex-based occupational segregation

are related to agency policy missions. Analyses of glass walls should not be based on

a single benchmark. One option is to supplement evaluations using the customary

30% threshold with evaluations employing a threshold of 50%, or true gender parity.

Keywords

glass walls, occupational segregation, gender politics, municipal bureaucracies,

women’s employment

1University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA

Corresponding Author:

Valerie H. Hunt, Public Policy PhD Program, University of Arkansas, Gearhart Hall 213, 340 N. Campus

Dr., Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA.

Email: vhunt@uark.edu

854467PPMXXX10.1177/0091026019854467Public Personnel ManagementHunt et al.

research-article2019

172 Public Personnel Management 49(2)

Introduction

This is the ultimate chicken and the egg situation. The chicken: Women will tear down

the external barriers once we achieve leadership roles . . . The egg: We need to eliminate

the external barriers to get women into those roles in the first place. Both sides are right.

(Sandberg, 2013 National Public Radio transcript)

Glass walls, glass ceilings, glass escalators, glass cliffs, and sticky floors are meta-

phors for barriers women face in their attempts to ascend to leadership positions in

organizational hierarchies (Guy, 1994; Powell, 2012; Ryan & Haslam, 2005; P. Smith,

Caputi, & Crittenden, 2012; Williams, 1992). Studies using publicly available data

have long documented the existence of both glass walls and glass ceilings in public

sector agencies in the United States (Bullard & Wright, 1993; Caceres-Rodriguez,

2013; Crum & Naff, 1997; Kellough, 1989, 1990; Lewis & Emmert, 1986; Rosenbloom,

1977; Sabharwal, 2015; Stivers, 1993). In a few studies using restricted-access U.S.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) public employment data,

researchers have examined sex-based barriers in state- and/or municipal-level bureau-

cracies (Kerr, Miller, & Reid, 2002; Miller, Kerr, & Reid, 1999; Reid, Kerr, & Miller,

2003). More recent studies on gender-based occupational segregation examine fed-

eral- and state-level agencies (e.g., Caceres-Rodriguez, 2013; Choi, 2015; Riccucci,

2009; Sabharwal, 2015; A. E. Smith & Monaghan, 2013), while similar examinations

of municipal bureaucracies are few and dated.

We focus on municipal government for several reasons. It is at this level that gov-

ernment services and resources are most directly delivered to constituents. There are a

large number of jobs available to women in city governments. Many of these positions

represent an important source of economic, social, and political progress for women.

Positions in municipal governments are often conveniently located near attractive

housing and educational opportunities (Miller et al., 1999). Women hold 61% of all

jobs at the municipal level (as opposed to 43% at the federal level), and these functions

include, among other things, education, public safety, family and children services,

emergency medical services, parks, recreation, road repair, water, sanitation, housing,

transportation, libraries, art, community development, youth activities, and so on

(Guy, 2017). Guy (2017) cautions that although women hold a majority of positions at

the municipal level, women are not proportionately represented across all types of

agencies. “Women are concentrated in public schools, public health offices, and fam-

ily and children’s services. Men are scattered more evenly across all jobs, but their

concentrations are most notable in public safety” (Guy, 2017, p. 50). Our objective is

to determine how well U.S. cities do in meeting two different thresholds—30% women

and 50% women—among professional and administrative workforces across different

agencies over time.

We extend, by 22 years, Miller et al. (1999) by examining the extent of sex-based

occupational segregation in U.S. municipal-level bureaucracies among administrative

and professional workforces and whether this segregation is related to agency policy

missions. We examine occupational segregation using the customary measurement

of 30% women (Miller et al., 1999; Tomaskovic-Devey, 1993). In addition, we