Careers satisfaction in the Ecuadorian civil service: a gender perspective

Abstract

Groeneveld (2009) found that women in the Dutch civil service are slightly more satisfied with their career opportunities than men, in an environment which has become more favorable to them in the recent years. Even if the gender difference found is significant, it is so small that its relevance is questionable. Using her methodology this paper seeks to understand if her findings can be applied cross nationally. Ecuador is an interesting case with a similar changing environment where women seem to be better represented at higher levels of the Ecuadorian civil service and where the wage gap has been significantly reduced in recent years. Contrary to the initial hypotheses that established a similar phenomenon would be observed, there are no statistical significant differences between genders in careers satisfaction even after controlling for socio-demographic variables. However, staff turnover for men is larger. It was found that the main variable to explain career satisfaction is salary and the position within the hierarchies in the state structure. In this context, the public sector employees value more the extrinsic aspects of the job than the intrinsic ones. Differences can also be found in the general level of satisfaction between people coming from different regions within the country.