Gender diversity from the top: the trickle‐down effect in the Australian public sector

Abstract

Organisational strategies to achieve gender diversity have tended to focus on ‘bottom‐up’ approaches such as mentoring or leadership training. We investigate an alternative ‘top‐down’ approach: the trickle‐down effect. We integrate theories from the psychology and management literatures to hypothesise a positive relationship between female representation at two levels. Data from 20 departments in an Australian public service were collected for the period 2002–2012. Female executive representation in 1 year had a positive impact on female representation in the executive feeder group in the following year. The trickle‐down effect was strongest in the first 2 years, but still significant after 5 years. We investigated two moderators, department size and gender diversity target. The effect was stronger in large departments. Surprisingly, the gender diversity target strengthened the trickle‐down effect only when female executive representation was under 15%. Our finding of a trickle‐down effect suggests public sector departments should consider appointing women to senior roles as a top‐down strategy for increasing organisational gender diversity.