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Fewer Women in More Responsible Legislative Jobs

In three related legislative job categories, the percentage of women decreased as the salary and responsibility increased. Women dominated the lowest paying category.

Table S-6 displays salaries and percentages of men and women in the categories of legislative director, legislative assistant, and legislative correspondent. Employees in all three of these positions deal directly with legislation, but at very different levels of responsibility. a description of these jobs, see p. 36.)

(For

As Table S-6 and Figure S-4 show, the average salaries of employees in these three job categories increased with increased responsibility. The average salary of legislative correspondents was $14,738, compared to $25,316 for legislative assistants, and $41,133 for legislative directors. As the table makes clear, the percentage of women in each of these job categories decreased as responsibility and pay increased. While 67 percent of the legislative correspondents, the lowest paid of these positions, were women, women made up only 37 percent of the legislative assistants. Of the highest paid of these positions, the legislative director, only 12 percent were women.

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More Men than Women in Policy-Making Jobs

There appeared to be a difference in the level of responsibility of the jobs held by women and by men. Of the nineteen job categories, seven can be identified as having a significant amount of policy-making responsibility. These are listed in Table S-7.

Table S-7 illustrates the percentage of Senate staff in each of these policy-making jobs by sex. Only 14.1 percent of women on Senate staffs were in policy-making positions, while 49.2 percent of men could be considered policy-makers. Furthermore, there were twice as many men (539) in policy positions as women (267). In each of these seven policy-making positions, except field manager, the percentage of men was much higher than the percentage of women.

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More Women than Men in Clerical Jobs

In examining the clerical positions, the opposite is true. Of the nineteen job categories, four were primarily clerical. As Table S-8 shows, women made up 91 percent of the employees in the four clerical categories combined. Women were 73, 91, 98, and 98 percent of the job holders in each category. In contrast, men comprised 27, 9, 2, and 2 percent of the same job categories.

Comparing these numbers to overall numbers of male and female staff reveals that 41.2 percent of all women working in Senate offices held clerical positions. The corresponding figure for male employees was only 7.2 percent

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HOUSE AND SENATE COMBINED

Combining the data from the House and the Senate gives an overall picture of the situation among employees of the Congress. The study included a total of 8,771 employees of both bodies, as Table C-1 shows. The proportion of female and male staff was the same in both the House and the Senate, 63.4 percent female and 36.6 percent male.