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2. Inequality and Bureaucratic Representation in Government Employment
- University of Nebraska Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Inequality and Bureaucratic Representation in Government Employment Discrimination against minorities and women has existed not only in the private sector but in the public sector as well. Focusing on the public sector raises important questions about the prospects for removing public employment barriers and also about the role of minorities and women as citizens and the degree to which government represents them as well as the white majority. The institutionalization of a representative bureaucracy is considered by some to be a means to ensure that the various groups making up the nation are represented in government. Bureaucratic representativeness carries both symbolic and policy implications for the majority and for minority groups. Affirmative action in government is both a measure of government responsiveness to its own laws and policies and its willingness to ensure representative bureaucracy for all. Race, ethnicity, and gender have shaped to a significant extent opportunities for government employment. Various minority groups and women have faced exclusion or have been relegated to lower positions due to physical characteristics or ethnic backgrounds. Rather than being in the forefront of promoting equality, government has often mirrored the discriminatory practices found in the private sector and society. For those who wish to see equality of opportunity in government employment, affirmative action efforts have become necessary in order to ensure that minorities and women have greater access to government positions. Blacks Blacks have faced exclusionary policies toward service in government, with public officials erecting numerous barriers to deny them access or limit their presence throughout most of American history. Initially, blacks were denied the opportunity to serve in the military during the American Revolution. Later, Congress in 1792 made service in the militia open only to white men. While affirmative action programs are often criticized for promoting those who lack the proper training, it is government that has often placed stumbling blocks before blacks in acquiring such knowledge. For example, in 1802 Postmaster General Gideon Granger supported a law barring blacks from delivering the mail, for he wished to avoid “everything which tends to increase their knowledge of natural rights, of men and things, or that affords them an opportunity of associating, acquiring and commuting sentiments, and of establishing a chain or line of intelligence.”After the Civil War, some blacks were able to find government employment in the federal government and in state and local governments, primarily in the South, but such employment was halted with the end of the Reconstruction era. The passage of the Pendleton Act in 1883 setting up the federal civil service system did bring about a major increase in black federal employment; early in the twentieth century, however, President Woodrow Wilson’s efforts to ensure racial segregation within the federal service once again limited black employment in the federal government.1 Presidential efforts by Harry Truman to desegregate the military after World War II and John Kennedy’s call for affirmative action in federal employment ultimately led to a greater concern for equal employment opportunities within the federal government. Initially, however, affirmative action did little to assist blacks in obtaining federal employment. Some studies have shown that affirmative action for the period 1962–80 had a relatively small impact on black federal employment.2 In addition, agency variations existed; the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (eeoc) had the highest percentage of blacks and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (nasa) the lowest.3 Some progress occurred by the mid-1980s, but gender has also played a role in shaping outcomes for blacks. For example, between 1976 and 1986, Gregory B. Lewis found that black women made the greatest gains in white-collar positions, while black males had the lowest growth.4 On the other hand, in comparison with average white male salaries for federal white-collar employment in 1986, black females received 41.3 percent less and black males received 25.8 percent less. Research on the federal executive branch shows that although blacks represented roughly 12.1 percent of the U.S. population in 1990, they held 16.7 percent of these positions in 1991 (of which 71 percent were held by black women).5 This positive finding, however, is offset by the fact that blacks are more likely to be found in the lower ranks and that they hold only 4.5 percent of the positions in the Senior Executive Service – the managerial elite of the federal government. For state and local governments, research demonstrated that blacks...
