For women who dream of the corner office, now is a good time to work for the federal government. Nearly a third of female feds are managers, a rate that makes the private sector pale in comparison.

The Office of Personnel Management released the statistics in a new, mostly rosy report that notes the strides women have made in the past decade. The agency based its findings on the 2014 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, which tracks demographic information as well as employees’ sentiments about their jobs.

The progress is most notable among younger women. Nearly 43 percent of the government’s more than 7,600 managers ages 25 to 34 are women. In comparison, 35 percent of managers ages 55 to 64 — a much bigger pool — are female, the report says.

Despite the gains, gender inequalities in terms of power and pay persist in the federal government. On average, women get paid 87 cents for every dollar men in government make, although OPM notes that the gap has narrowed substantially for women in the SES. They make 99.2 cents on the dollar, compared to men.


Yet men fill most management and Senior Executive Service roles. They make up the vast majority of veterans hired by the government under a broad White House directive that urges agencies to fill open slots with former military. Women are 18.7 percent of veterans in the civilian workforce today. In light of the disparity, the President’s Council on Veterans Employment plans to emphasize the needs of female veterans by adding new goals on leadership commitment, employment, marketing and outreach in its three-year strategic plan.

OPM Director Katherine Archuleta has met with groups focused on women’s career development, including a pilot mentoring program, according to the report. OPM is encouraging agencies to adopt a new, data-focused recruitment and retention strategy that emphasizes diversity.

While not mentioned in the OPM report, the viewpoint survey it is based upon highlights notable differences in men and women’s perception of their work lives. Women were more likely to say they were satisfied in response to questions about their own work. But they were less likely than men to say that their agencies promoted diversity and more likely to say their agencies tolerated discriminatory practices. Women also were less likely to believe they could disclose a suspected violation of a law or rule without fear of reprisal.

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