Abstract
This chapter discusses the position of women in the civil services in South Asia (India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh). The majority of women are in lower level positions. It is rare to find women in higher and mid-level positions and in professional and administrative occupations. Despite constitutional guarantees and other governmental initiatives to remove gender discrimination from the civil services of these countries, women continue to fight against a variety of odds to attain career success. The objective of this chapter is to make a comparative analysis of the factors accounting for the successful advancement of women in top positions in the civil services of these three countries, and to analyze factors that may impede women from making more progress. A cultural approach has been adopted in this study, emphasizing that the social contexts within which institutions operate shape the manner in which institutions behave and act. Based on extensive fieldwork, the study maps female civil servants opinions on a number of factors that impede their career prospects in the civil service. In the conclusion, some policy recommendations are made as a way to address the issue.
This paper is a result of extensive fieldwork carried out by the researcher from January 2008 to October 2008 (during her stay in India as an ICCR Commonwealth PhD researcher). The majority of both primary and secondary data were collected during the fieldwork phase. In February 2011, May 2012 and August 2014, the author updated the data pool.
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Notes
- 1.
The Schedule Castes, also known as the Dalit, and the Schedule Tribes, are two groupings of historically disadvantaged people who are given express recognition in the constitution of India. During the period of British rule in the Indian sub-continent, they were known as the Depressed Classes. Since independence, the Schedule Castes have benefited by the reservation policy. This policy became an integral part of the constitution through the effort of Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar, regarded as the father of the Indian constitution, who participated in the round table conferences and fought for the rights of the Depressed Classes. The constitution lays down general principles for the policy of affirmative action for the SCs and STs.
- 2.
For both the Indian Administrative Service and the Indian Police Service, the age limit is 21–32 years. The upper age limit of 32 years is also relaxable by five more years for candidates belonging to Scheduled Casts and the Scheduled Tribes categories, 3 years for Other Backward Cast candidates, and 5 years for people who lived in Jammu and Kashmir during the period between 1 January 1980 and 31 December 1989, among others.
- 3.
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal [Accessed 8 March 2009].
- 4.
Civil Service of Pakistan, a defined cadre that dominated Pakistan’s bureaucracy during the 1950s and 1960s, until its abolition in 1973. The District Management Group was established as a result of 1973 administrative reforms. Its name was changed to Pakistan Administrative Service in 2012.
- 5.
The civil service of Pakistan selects only 7.5 % of the applicants by merit, education, qualification, and experience while 92.5 % are selected by the quota system.
- 6.
Under the 1973 administrative reforms, the ranks in the civil service were classified into 22 national pay grades (basic pay scale). Grades 1–4 were designed for unskilled tasks; grades 5–15 for clerical personnel; grade 16 for superintendents; and grades 17–22 for officers. The fundamental pattern of grades has remained the same despite several revisions since inception.
- 7.
Pakistan Observer, 26 August 2008.
- 8.
Recently some women have been recruited to top civil service positions. Four women are now posted as ‘secretary’ in contrast to 70 men. 23 are listed as ‘additional secretary’ in contrast to 251 men in various ministries www.mopa.gov.bd. (accessed 4 August 2014).
- 9.
Geert Hofstede, a Dutch engineer for 10 years, returned to school to earn a PhD in social psychology. After completing his dissertation, IBM hired him as a management trainer in the European executive development department. Later he started a department for doing research in the field of personnel. He collected 116,000 survey responses that laid the groundwork for his popular book Culture’s Consequences. Upon leaving IBM, Hofstede used 6 years to complete the book.
- 10.
Although my study concerns women’s participation in the policy management process in South Asia, the countries of Nepal, Sri-Lanka, Maldives, and Bhutan are excluded on logical grounds. Since I have already included three major South Asian countries in my work, inclusion of more countries in the study will be too ambitious and unwieldy to manage.
- 11.
The Indian Administrative Service is the administrative civil service of the government of India. Indian Administrative Service officers hold key positions in the Union Government, State government, and Public Sectors Undertakings. The Administrative Service is one of the three All India Services (Administrative, forestry and police services).
- 12.
The District Management Group is now the Public Administration Service, which dominates civil service appointments in the Federal and Provincial Secretariats as well as in the Districts.
- 13.
Purposive sampling techniques are primarily used in qualitative studies. These may be defined as selecting units (e.g., individuals, groups of individuals, institutions) based on specific purposes associated with answering research study questions. Maxwell (1997) further defines purposive sampling as a type of sampling in which “particular settings, persons, or events are deliberately selected for the important information they can provide that cannot be gotten as well from other choices.”
- 14.
Tape recorders were not used.
- 15.
The competition between Indian Administrative Service officers is fierce, since only a minority can reach the higher posts of the administration, in the secretariat and in the ministries. Merit and seniority are not the only considerations in career advancement. Disguised discrimination is a common practice, and incompetent officers are sometimes promoted only because of their caste identity.
- 16.
A stereotype is a belief that can be held by anybody about specific types of individuals or certain ways of doing things, but that belief may or may not accurately reflect reality.
- 17.
In ancient Rome, a patron was usually an older man who took a ‘client’ under his wing and gave him advice about life (money, business, family, etc.). He acted as a mentor. In return the client would show loyalty to the patron by doing whatever was asked of him (usually he helped the patron with work in the community).
- 18.
The act of attempting to influence business and government leaders to create legislation or conduct an activity that will help a particular organization. People who do lobbying are called lobbyists.
- 19.
Caste favoritism leads to unequal allocation of resources and to misappropriation of government funds at the expense of the target groups, that is, the underprivileged sections of society. To explain this practice, the bureaucrats of India accuse local politicians of pressuring them to prioritize serving their ‘clients’, that is their specific electorate. A young Collector from India admits: “If a Minister or a local MLA gives me 10 names which should be considered first for the distribution of a government scheme, I have to accept at least 5 of them, only then can I serve those who really need this scheme and who are eligible for it.”
- 20.
Bangladesh Public Service Commission (BPSC) is the central personnel agency for the government of Bangladesh. The agency conducts several examinations for prospective employees.
- 21.
In social dynamics, critical mass is a sufficient number of adopters of an innovation in a social system so that the rate of adoption becomes self-sustaining and creates further growth. Critical mass theory in gender politics and collective political action is defined as the critical number of personnel needed to affect policy and make a change not as the token but as an influential body.
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Kabir, S. (2015). Key Issues in Women’s Representation in Bureaucracy: Lessons from South Asia. In: Jamil, I., Aminuzzaman, S., Haque, S. (eds) Governance in South, Southeast, and East Asia. Public Administration, Governance and Globalization, vol 15. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15218-9_9
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