MASTER PLAN

    Slowly but steadily, the appointment gap is narrowing between women and men selected by governors to serve as top-ranking policy leaders, according to the annual report, Appointed Policy Makers in State Government, compiled by UAlbany's Center for Women in Government and released Tuesday.
    Yet, a large gap remains, with males comprising 70.2 percent of these policy leaders in 1999, compared to 71.7 percent in 1997. 
    “National trends on top-ranking women appointees in state government are both positive and negative,” said Judith Saidel, executive director of the center and the study's project director. “Between 1997 and 1999, the appointments gap between women and men policy leaders narrowed and the percentage of women department heads rose steadily. On the other hand, in the last year, governors appointed a lower proportion of women to key positions in executive chambers.”
    The report states that the percentage of female department heads in governor's offices rose from 23.7 percent in 1997 to 25.8 percent in 1999, while top advisers to governors dropped during that period from 39.7 to 38.9 percent.
    New York State improved its position in the rankings, rising from 40th in the national rankings in 1997 to 34th in 1999. Women currently hold 25.4 percent of appointed policy leader positions in New York government. The state's percentages of African-Americans and Hispanic policy leaders also improved in the last three years. 
     Original data on policy leaders appointed by current governors were collected from the states via a mailed survey and follow-up phone calls as needed between May and October of this year. For the purpose of the study, “policy leaders” include department heads (heads of departments, agencies, offices, boards, commissions, and authorities) and top advisers in governors' offices (chief of staff, government liaison, legal adviser, press secretary/communications director).
     The study found that governors continue to appoint women as heads of public bureaucracies in fields where women leaders have traditionally been concentrated. For instance, women appointees hold 66.7% of leadership positions in civil and human rights, 37% in labor and human resources, 37.1% in health, 36.5% in welfare and employment security, and 26.5% in education.
    The study includes state-based representativeness ratios, which document the degree to which different groups are represented as appointed policy leaders. “Representativeness is achieved when the social composition of top-ranking appointees mirrors that of the general population,” the report states.
    The study, underwritten by the Ford Foundation, also found that very little change in the race and ethnicity composition of state-level appointed policy leaders occurred between 1997-99, with the exception of Latino policy makers, who comprised 3.4 percent of appointed policy leaders in 1999, as opposed to 2.6 percent in 1997.
    “The national appointments picture for nonwhite policy leaders remains bleak,” said Saidel. “The percentages of African American, Asian American, and American Indian gubernatorial appointees all declined between 1997 and 1999. Latino policy leaders were the only group to gain. In particular, the number and percentage of Latino women executives who head state agencies rose dramatically in the last year.” 
    The study also found that governors elected for the first time in 1998 appointed 15% fewer women to top leadership positions.