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Public Organization Review

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01.12.2013

Key Issues in Women’s Representation in Bureaucracy: Lessons from South Asia

verfasst von: Syeda Lasna Kabir

Erschienen in: Public Organization Review | Ausgabe 4/2013

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Abstract

This paper 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 paper 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 analyse 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 field work, 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.

Vorheriger Artikel Constructing Co-governance between Government and Civil Society: An Institutional Approach to Collaboration

Nächster Artikel Dynamics of Public Policy: Determinants of Policymaking and Implementation in Bangladesh

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One of the major problems in obtaining data on women’s employment in the civil service is that the data are often incomplete and 3 to 4 years old. It is with these limits in mind the data below must be regarded.

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Although my study concerns women’s participation in the policy management process in South-Asia, 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.

The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) 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 (IAS, IPS and IFS).

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Titel: Key Issues in Women’s Representation in Bureaucracy: Lessons from South Asia
verfasst von: Syeda Lasna Kabir
Publikationsdatum: 01.12.2013
Verlag: Springer US
Erschienen in: Public Organization Review / Ausgabe 4/2013
Print ISSN: 1566-7170
Elektronische ISSN: 1573-7098
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11115-013-0261-8

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