a result, two-thirds of all female professionals work in the National Office as compared to two-fifths of all male As was the case with blacks, female professionals tend to be in lower grade positions in comparison to all professionals. The proportion which women comprise of professionals in each of the grades GS 5-11 is much greater than their 23 percent representation in the professional ranks. On the other hand, the percent of women in each of the grades above GS-11 is far below this level. For example, the proportion of women in grades GS-15, 16, and 17 amounts to 7 percent, 7 percent, and 5 percent respectively. are no female GS-18's in the Department. The under-representation of women in the higher professional grades prevails in both the National Office and the Field. p. 38).' The extent to which female professionals are There (Chart 11, trated in the lower grades is reflected by the 19 percent difference between their average salary and that for all professionals. This difference is 18 percent in the National Office, and a very large 26 percent in the Field. p. 253). (Table 3, Chart 11. PERCENT OF PROFESSIONALS IN EACH GRADE LEVEL WHO ARE FEMALE, BY GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION, 5 7 9 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Source: Tables 5, 14, and 23 pp. 254, 263, &271. Underutilization in administrations and regions The poor representation of women professionals in the Field, and the poor distribution of these employees in both the National Office and the Field that occurs in every administration is reflected in a set of very low use indices. Only BLS has a use index for women over .70. The composite use index for the Department is only .55 which implies that the Department is just over half-way toward achieving parity for women. (Chart 12, p. 40). In the National Office, only LMSA has a poor representation of women, but in only BLS and SOL are the average salaries of female professionals at least 85 percent of that for all professionals. In the Field, BLS is the only administration where the representation of female profes sionals is at least 25 percent, and where the average salary of these professionals is over 80 percent of that for all professionals. (Charts 13-14, pp. 41-42 ). New York is the only region which is at least half-way toward achieving parity for women. The poor use indices for women are culminated in the Philadelphia and Kansas City regions where women comprise only 10 percent and 5 |