Women and Minorities in State Government Agencies

This paper explores the relationship between size, type and location of agency and representation of women and minorities in state government agencies through an examination of the recent demographic data on full-time employees in the state governments of Michigan and Pennsylvania. Findings indicate that while type and location of agency are directly linked to female representation in Pennsylvania and Michigan, these variables are not related to minority representation. Women are likely to be overrepresented in redistributive agencies and agencies located in large cities. Surprisingly, size of agency is not linked to female or minority representation in either of these states. Further, women and minorities tend to be overrepresented in clerical and paraprofessional jobs and underrepresented in administrative and technical jobs, as past studies demonstrated. African Americans are well represented, whereas other minorities, such as Hispanics and Asian Americans, are poorly represented in these states.