Inquiring the data on gender equality in terms of labour relations, IDFI has disseminated the questionnaire in 175 Public Authorities. Out of the 2 275 requests sent  to the public authorities, IDFI has received 1789 complete and 96 incomplete responses, 3 refusal, and 147 were left unanswered, explaining that they did not possess  the requested information or had not taken definite actions. Based on the received data the Institute has conducted research. For the full version of the research please follow the link.

The given article will overview data for April 2013, directly connected with gender equality of employees and officials in public institutions. 

• Public Servants

In accordance with the Law on Public Service of Georgia, “a public servant is a citizen of Georgia that, as a paid employee, renders services in compliance with the law regulations and position requirements in the state or local self-government institutions. Types of public services are: Governmental political officer, servant, support servant, and temporary servant. A servant is a person who is appointed or elected on the position. Servants are divided into Government and local self-government servants.

IDFI has received comprehensive statistics about public servants from 166 public authorities of Georgia. Based on the statistics, there are a total of 74 532 public servants in 166 public authorities of Georgia, out of which 8 714 are high ranking public officials (heads of Unit officers and senior). Out of a total of 74 532 public servants, 25 703 personnel are employed in the ministries’ central and state ministerial offices, 30 644 in public legal entities and sub-agencies, 10 421 in local self-government bodies, and 7 764 in other public institutions in Georgia.

• Statistics of public servants in terms of gender

According to article 6 of the “Law on Gender Equality”, the Government promotes equal opportunities for both sexes. Under the current circumstances of equal employment opportunities for public servants, out of 74 532 public servants from 166 public authorities, the majority are men.

Quantity of Men is 52 679      /     Quantity of Women 21 853

In accordance with the samearticle of the “Law on Gender Equality” of Georgia, there are provisions of unequal and or/precedent circumstances due to specific scope of work and situation in the context of employment and labour relation for both sexes. Unequal gender balance (66% of men in the public authorities) in public authorities is related to the mentioned factor, particularly in law enforcement institutions. Out of the 166 public authorities that submitted comprehensive information related to public servants, the following are implied under law enforcement institutions, based on the specific scope of work: the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Central Office of the Ministry of Defense, the State Defense Special Service, and the Intelligence Service. 39 637 servants are employed, out of which 34 171 are men and 5 466 are women. In “non-law enforcement agencies”, there are a total of 34 872 servants, out of which 18 508 are men and 16 387 are women. 

Data about public servants in law enforcement structures demonstrate statistics from the Central Secretary at the Ministry of Defense of Georgia. As for the statistics of servants of the Armed Forces of the Ministry of Defense of Georgia, the data is a top-secret and percentage figures are shown in terms of gender in the following way:

Gender balance of public servants in public authorities is not equal.  78.6 % of public servants in the central and state ministerial offices of the ministries are men. However, the high percentage of men in these types of public authorities is due to a large quantity of men in the law enforcement structures. Apart from law enforcement structures, the majority, namely 54.5 % of servants, are women in the central and state ministerial offices of the ministries. Similar cases can be found among public servants in public legal entities and sub-agencies. In general public legal entities 67.2 % of the employees are men, though excluding law enforcement structures, the percentage of women is higher and equals to 51.7 %.

Statistics varies in local self-government bodies (City Halls, Municipal Boards). Despite the fact that the factors related to scope of work in the law enforcement structures are not considered, men highly exceed the percentage of women. Indicator of men equals to 67.5 %.

•   Gender balance of high ranking public officers

Comprehensive data about high ranking officers (heads of unit or higher) was received from 168 public authorities.According to the data received, 9 250 servants of high ranking positions were occupied by mostly men. The number of men equals 7245, whereas there are 2005 women.

Analyses of data about gender balance of public servants in the public authorities of Georgia has showed that a high percentage of men  can be observed due to the specific scope of work in law enforcement structures, whereas women and men percentage in general is equal, though this tendency is not observed in high ranking positions.The quantity of men both in law enforcement and non-law enforcement structures is very high. Comprehensive information about the high ranking officers has been received from law enforcement structures as well, such as General HQs of the Ministry of Defense of Georgia and Law Enforcement Department.

In any case, the number of male high ranking officials highly exceeds the number of female high ranking officials in public authorities. The higher number of high ranking male officers (83.4%) was especially apparent in the central and state offices of the ministries, while the largest percentage of male (76 %) officials was observed in the local self governments (City Halls and Municipal Boards), excluding the law enforcement agencies.