Gendering the Public Sector: Women’s Status in Local Administrations. A Case Study from Spain

Women’s role in political representation has been deeply studied in the administration and political literature, but scarcely researched from an employment point of view. Furthermore, there is a lack of attention to public employment in administrations, specifically municipalities, which are the closest public level to the citizenry. We claim women\u27s employment in public administration presents similar characteristics to private employment—occupational segregation, wage gap, glass ceiling—despite being a traditional niche of protected employment for women in Europe and globally. This fact is contrary to what might be expected, from a guarantor of equality in the public sector