Man up! The Glass Escalator in Sweden's Local Government Bureaucracy

A growing body of research documents that women face obstacles in the advancement to positions of influence in politics (e.g. Folke and Rickne 2016; O'Brien 2015). At the same time, we know significantly less about gender differences in the public bureaucracy. While some have observed that women account for a smaller proportion of higher compared to lower bureaucratic positions (Ernst & Young 2014, Nasser 2018), we have little knowledge of why this patter exists. My paper overcomes this lack of knowledge by studying whether the gender of bureaucrats impacts their promotion chances to leadership positions in the public bureaucracy. It thereby advances our knowledge of how well the formal principle of meritocratic recruitment function in practice. Unlike politics, public administration is not a male-dominated sector. In recent data for 139 countries, the global average of women’s participation in public administration stands at 46 percent, and in Europe and North America, the average proportion has passed the 50-50 mark (UNDP 2021). To understand promotion patterns in this context, I apply theories and methods from the literature on gender and promotions in labor markets. In this literature, the concept of a glass escalator symbolizes how an invisible force aids men’s transitions to higher echelons of power in female-dominated organizations. The metaphor originates from extensive qualitative work by Williams (1989, 1992, 1993, 1995) which shows that underrepresented men can gain career advantages through preferential treatment by superiors, coworkers and clients which can “elevate” them to higher positions. I undertake my analysis in detailed administrative data for local government bureaucracies in Sweden, a dataset that covers the full universe of Swedish local government bureaucrats in 290 municipalities between 2008 and 2019. This data allows a dynamic analysis of promotions across bureaucratic levels over time. The main analysis compares the likelihood of upward promotion for men relative to their women colleagues with equal qualifications. A particular strength of the data is the availability of high-quality variables that measure qualifications for bureaucratic jobs. These variables include education level, educational type, high school grades and labor market experience since 1990. My results show that men face an advantage relative to equally qualified women while climbing in the bureaucratic hierarchy, a pattern that is consistent with the phenomena of a “glass escalator”. The paper contributes to our understanding of meritocracy and gender equality in the personnel politics of the public sector. This is important not least because the public bureaucracy has the potential to set an example for other labor market sectors in terms of career equality (UNDP 2021). The study also contributes in identifying potential sources of inefficiencies in the public sector. For example, previous research show that women in top bureaucratic positions may improve gender equality in appointments for lower-level positions (Meier and Funk 2017), increase the participation in work-life balance programs (Bae et al. 2019), and improve job satisfaction (D’Agostino 2015).