STUDY OF EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN IN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT-1968

U.S. CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION, BUREAU OF MANAGEMENT SERVICES

(Tables to study retained in Subcommittee permanent file.)

PREFACE

This Study of Employment of Women in the Federal Government provides comprehensive statistics for evaluating the status of women in comparison to the total full-time while-collar Federal workforce for the years 1966 and 1968. The purpose of the data is to supply a tool for agency use in assessing progress and in identifying areas where greater efforts must be made to assure equality of opportunity for women. The format of the presentation will allow agencies to prepare individual self-evaluations and plans for future action.

President Nixon recently reinforced the total equal employment opportunity program by stating, "I am determined that the Executive Branch of the Government lead the way as an equal opportunity employer." As a part of our responsibility under Presidential directive, we present this study for your use.

ROBERT E. HAMPTON, Chairman.
JAMES E. JOHNSON, Commissioner.
L. J. ANDOLSEK, Commissioner.

BACKGROUND

Chronologically, the employment of American women in public service antedates the United States Government itself. A woman postmaster, appointed in 1773. had been in office 14 years when the Constitution was signed. There are four other isolated cases on record of women employed in the postal service in the early years of the Nation, but Government service was almost exclusively a man's world until the middle of the 19th century.

The Treasury Department made the first major breakthrough between 1862 and 1868 by hiring a number of "lady clerks." Prejudice was overcome little by little, not by any theoretical considerations of abstract justice but by the job performance of the women themselves. In 1868 one converted Treasury supervisor voiced the conviction of many, that "female clerks are more attentive, diligent, and efficient than males and make better clerks."

The Civil Service Act of 1883 marked the real turning point in Government careers for women. Under the merit system, established by that Act, women were permitted and even encouraged to compete in civil service examinations on the same basis as men. The first woman appointed to a civil service position made the highest score on the first civil service examination given in Washington in 1883, and received the second appointment.

Equal pay for women lagged far behind equal opportunity to compete in examinations. In 1864 a maximum salary of $600 a year for female clerks in Government was established by law; male clerks were receiving $1200 to $1800. Six years later, in 1870, a new law gave department heads permission to pay equal salaries to women for equal work, but very few of them chose to do so. Equality of the sexes with respect to pay finally became a reality when the Classification Act of 1923 established the present pay system whereby the salary rate for each job is determined solely on the basis of the duties and responsibilities that make up the job. The Federal Government was the first among major employers to put into effect the principle of equal pay for equal work.

The last legal barrier to full equality of opporunity for women in the Federal service was removed in 1962. The 1870 law which gave agency heads authority to appoint women to the higher clerkships at the same salaries as men "in their discretion" was interpreted for many years as legal authority for them to request only women, or only men, in filling positions. For a great many positions, and for almost all positions in the higher grades, the agencies asked for men only.

A 1962 ruling by the Attorney General, who reviewed the law following a request by the President's Commission on the Status of Women, declared the former interpretation unjustified and invalid. Then in 1965, in order to preclude any possibility of reversion to the previous policy, Congress repealed the law itself. Consequently, Federal departments and agencies may no longer specify sex in filling any but a few, specific positions approved by the Civil Service Commission. With the removal of this barrier, the framework for true equality of men and women, with respect to opportunity for appointment and advancement in the Federal service, was finally achieved.