The Audacity of Equality: Sexual Discrimination in Hiring and Promotion Within the Public Sector in Iowa

Abstract

In this modern day, women are speaking out more than ever before regarding their real-life experiences of employment discrimination, whether it be the inability to gain employment for which they are qualified, or even over qualified, or being overlooked for a promotion which they clearly deserved, time and time again. Qualitative experiences of women who have worked in government in Iowa over the past fifty years have unfortunately not shown a progression toward improvement, in the matter of sexual discrimination, in the hiring and promotion practices of the public sector industry. Further supporting this concept, is the ample quantitative hiring and staffing data of state and local government agencies in Iowa. Comprehension of this data shows that although females are being hired by some of these agencies in an equitable manner in comparison to that of males, they are grave disparities in regards to what jobs they are able to gain and what level of leadership they are able to gain promotion to. Still presenting the reality of sexual discrimination is the data that shows, that through archaic hiring practices, women are still highly represented in the traditional female dominated roles in the workforce of clerical support, education and custodian. When allowed into the male dominated fields, women are few in number, rarely reach any role of leadership, and still are being most utilized in the “acceptable” female roles of clerical support, education and custodian. Despite the often-political nature of public sector employment, even liberal, progressive governments do not stray from these sexually discriminate practices, according to current data.