Gender inequality and female agency in the outsourced public sector

Abstract

Despite advances in gender equality in the public administration, information available on the situation of outsourced sectors is insufficient. Through the critical view of gender about the managerial and privatizing vision of the New Public Management, this article aims to study gender and labor relations in auxiliary companies of municipality administration. Based on a case study of a municipality in the province of Cádiz (Spain), and using a mixed methodology, the main work inequalities between men and women in the outsourced services of the city council are analyzed, as well as the experiences, perceptions and agency of women. The study reveals the existence of significant labor inequalities due to gender, which is manifested in horizontal and vertical segregation, but also in salary differences. Qualitative analysis allows us to know the informal mechanisms behind these dynamics, associated to the devaluation of female work or the difficulties for work-(family)life balance. Likewise, female agency is recognized facing this double situation of (class and gender) oppression, that is manifested not only in union activity in feminized sectors, but also in cases of self-organization of women within the union structures.