ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies that public services are expected to be conducive to gender equality based on factors such as highly regulated classification and wage structures and decades of equal opportunity policies. Public services are large employers of women, and the post-war expansion of welfare state regimes created employment opportunities for women in health, education and welfare. Public services provide more professional and semi-professional job opportunities but, perversely, the overall effect has been to bundle women into feminised occupations and jobs that attract lower earnings due to the social devaluation of women's work. Success in increasing the participation of women entering the public service has not been paralleled by advancement up the career ladder, and there is an apparent age barrier to gender equality at work in the Queensland Public Service (QPS). The gender pay gap (GPG) is the most studied indicator of gender inequality at work and in Australia women continue to earn less than men.
