Tuula Melkas & Anna-Maija Lehto. Gender equality planning in the public sector. Survey on the realisation of the planning obligation. Helsinki 2005
Statistics Finland was assigned by the Office of the Ombudsman for Equality to conduct a survey on gender equality planning in the public sector. The survey is based on two studies: In early 2005, personnel directors or comparable were interviewed concerning the implementation of gender equality planning. The data on the employees views is based on a survey on the quality of work life conducted in late 2003.
According to the data from 2005, roughly every other workplace in the public sector has implemented gender equality planning. This covers around two thirds of the employees. Gender equality planning has been most common in the state central administration and most uncommon in municipalities and joint municipal boards for health and social services.
Questions on nine specific issues were used to examine how detailed the plans are and whether concrete measures concerning these issues were mentioned in the plans. Over one fourth of the plans mentioned no more than two issues. All of the nine issues were mentioned in around one tenth of the plans. On average, a little less than five issues were mentioned. Prevention and eradication of sexual harassment and misconduct were mentioned most often. Among the least mentioned issues was the elimination of unfounded pay differences between the genders.
The position of gender equality planning within the whole of personnel policy varies a great deal in the public sector. In over 70 per cent of workplaces in the state central administration and joint municipalities for education, the top management receives reports on the monitoring of the gender equality plan. However, among the few municipalities with a gender equality plan, only in around every other municipality the monitoring of the plans is reported to the top management.
In a clear majority of workplaces with a gender equality plan, at least sometimes, training or debates have been arranged or issues concerning gender equality planning have been included in the introduction programme for new employees. It is, however, very rare even at big workplaces to create gender equality networks encompassing the subunits.
In the state central administration, the universities and colleges included, the situation of gender equality planning seems better in comparison to other fields in the public sector. The state central administration has already drawn benefits from gender equality planning more often than other fields in the public sector.
According to the Quality of Work Life Survey, employees are rarely familiar with gender equality planning. Employees are significantly less familiar with gender equality plans than those who work in personnel administration. The situation is the same for both the state and the municipalities. The difference seems to be particularly great when it comes to the views of employees in municipalities and joint municipal boards and those who work in personnel administration so that employees have noticed gender equality plans concerning themselves significantly more rarely than what has been reported by the organisations.
A somewhat surprising result of the Quality of Work Life Survey is that employees have noticed quite a lot of different kinds of other gender equality measures than gender equality plans at workplaces. This applies specifically to measures to implement a more just division of tasks between the genders. Gender equality is, thus, clearly discussed in work communities.
Men have generally observed more efforts to promote gender equality than women. This was particularly evident in the municipal sector when the employees were asked whether there has been any effort to diminish differences in pay at the workplace.
The Quality of Work Life Survey also shows quite interestingly that attention to gender equality issues generates results. In particular, at those workplaces where the fathers were encouraged to take parental leave, including nursing leave because of sick child, the fathers took more advantage of their rights.
Key words: gender equality, gender equality planning, public sector, sexual harassment and misconduct, pay differentials