(UN)Representative bureaucracy: Women in the Israeli senior civil service

Women are severely underrepresented in the Israeli senior civil service. This article explores the barriers that impede women's advancement to top administrative positions by comparing those who achieved senior ranks to a sample of two control groups: male senior officials and middle-rank female officials. Four explanations are offered: (a) human capital, (b) attitudes and views, (c) organizational characteristics and values, and (d) functional attributes. Data show that senior women are different from senior men in their higher status, in their lower sense of equity, and in their domestic chores. Senior women are distinct from middle-rank women in their social, women's, and occupational networking and in their internal domestic chores. A discriminate analysis has shown the importance of domestic chores in the male-female variation and the importance of status, social, occupational, and women networking within the intrafemale variation.