Women working in the Canadian Federal Public Service (CFPS) face complex issues and competing demands. However, despite challenges such as obtaining further education, managing home responsibilities, and dealing with workplace issues, some have also developed and managed successful careers. Problems highlighted within literature on career development for women relate to the nature of women’s lives with their many transitional points, in which personal and organizational factors inextricably intertwine. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explore the career development and advancement of women towards and into entry executive level positions within the Canadian Federal Public Service (CFPS). Three research questions guided this inquiry: 1) How have personal factors influenced career development and advancement of women in the CFPS towards and into pre-executive and entry executive levels? 2) How have organizational factors influenced their career development and advancement? and 3) How have personal and organizational factors combined to influence their career development and advancement? This research was grounded in a social constructivist paradigm which guided the research both ontologically and epistemologically. Schwandt (1994) contends that “objective knowledge and truth is a result of perspective. Knowledge and truth are created, not discovered” (p. 125). The inquiry attempted, therefore, to understand women’s complex career development processes from a holistic perspective through their career life stories. Ten women at the pre-executive or entry executive level from various departments within the CFPS took part in the study. Data collection was carried out mainly through a series of three semi-structured interviews. The findings of the study describe how participants’ personal dispositions, formal education, and home lives (personal factors) influenced their career development and advancement. In addition, it was found that the organization’s culture of long hours, its support for learning, participants’ organizational networks, and superiors’ contributions (organizational factors) also influenced women’s careers. This study contributes to our understanding of women’s career development, thereby providing important insights for future research. The study may have implications for CFPS policymakers, career counsellors, universities responsible for educating future career counsellors, as well as for individual women themselves, and perhaps even men.

Women working in the Canadian Federal Public Service (CFPS) face complex issues and competing demands. However, despite challenges such as obtaining further education, managing home responsibilities, and dealing with workplace issues, some have also developed and managed successful careers. Problems highlighted within literature on career development for women relate to the nature of women’s lives with their many transitional points, in which personal and organizational factors inextricably intertwine. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explore the career development and advancement of women towards and into entry executive level positions within the Canadian Federal Public Service (CFPS). Three research questions guided this inquiry: 1) How have personal factors influenced career development and advancement of women in the CFPS towards and into pre-executive and entry executive levels? 2) How have organizational factors influenced their career development and advancement? and 3) How have personal and organizational factors combined to influence their career development and advancement? This research was grounded in a social constructivist paradigm which guided the research both ontologically and epistemologically. Schwandt (1994) contends that “objective knowledge and truth is a result of perspective. Knowledge and truth are created, not discovered” (p. 125). The inquiry attempted, therefore, to understand women’s complex career development processes from a holistic perspective through their career life stories. Ten women at the pre-executive or entry executive level from various departments within the CFPS took part in the study. Data collection was carried out mainly through a series of three semi-structured interviews. The findings of the study describe how participants’ personal dispositions, formal education, and home lives (personal factors) influenced their career development and advancement. In addition, it was found that the organization’s culture of long hours, its support for learning, participants’ organizational networks, and superiors’ contributions (organizational factors) also influenced women’s careers. This study contributes to our understanding of women’s career development, thereby providing important insights for future research. The study may have implications for CFPS policymakers, career counsellors, universities responsible for educating future career counsellors, as well as for individual women themselves, and perhaps even men.

Using Dorothy Smith’s institutional ethnographic approach to doing research, I explore through interviews with disabled workers how workplace accommodation policies, such as the New Policy on the Duty to Accommodate Employees with Disabilities in the Federal Public Service and the Department of Fearless Advice’s Workplace Accommodation policy, work. Starting from the standpoint of disabled employees, I map out what happens when a disabled federal public service employee activates one of these policies. I also show that the audit-based compliance evaluation process developed by the Canadian Human Rights Commission to safeguard government Departments/Agencies against systemic discrimination actually facilitates discrimination. These textually-mediated ruling relations situate the problems that disabled workers encounter in the workplace in their biological makeup, rather than in the Government of Canada’s unwillingness to transform their workplaces to meet the needs of all types of workers, as legislated by the Eldridge and Meiorin Supreme Court of Canada decisions. I show, further, that the on-line recruitment process used to select employees into the federal public service encodes normality, thereby discriminating against disabled workers. I also demonstrate that, although federal public service accommodation policies accomplish the legal obligation of the employer not to discriminate against disabled workers, the individualization of accommodations forces disabled workers to take it upon themselves to find ways and means in which to fit into workplaces that have not been designed to meet their needs. I conclude by proposing that in order to change this situation and to counteract the unprecedented number of human rights complaints that have been brought against the Government of Canada for discrimination on the prohibited ground of disability, disabled workers need to follow in the militant footsteps of Canadian First Nations peoples. / Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Studies

Women working in the Canadian Federal Public Service (CFPS) face complex issues and competing demands. However, despite challenges such as obtaining further education, managing home responsibilities, and dealing with workplace issues, some have also developed and managed successful careers. Problems highlighted within literature on career development for women relate to the nature of women’s lives with their many transitional points, in which personal and organizational factors inextricably intertwine. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explore the career development and advancement of women towards and into entry executive level positions within the Canadian Federal Public Service (CFPS). Three research questions guided this inquiry: 1) How have personal factors influenced career development and advancement of women in the CFPS towards and into pre-executive and entry executive levels? 2) How have organizational factors influenced their career development and advancement? and 3) How have personal and organizational factors combined to influence their career development and advancement? This research was grounded in a social constructivist paradigm which guided the research both ontologically and epistemologically. Schwandt (1994) contends that “objective knowledge and truth is a result of perspective. Knowledge and truth are created, not discovered” (p. 125). The inquiry attempted, therefore, to understand women’s complex career development processes from a holistic perspective through their career life stories. Ten women at the pre-executive or entry executive level from various departments within the CFPS took part in the study. Data collection was carried out mainly through a series of three semi-structured interviews. The findings of the study describe how participants’ personal dispositions, formal education, and home lives (personal factors) influenced their career development and advancement. In addition, it was found that the organization’s culture of long hours, its support for learning, participants’ organizational networks, and superiors’ contributions (organizational factors) also influenced women’s careers. This study contributes to our understanding of women’s career development, thereby providing important insights for future research. The study may have implications for CFPS policymakers, career counsellors, universities responsible for educating future career counsellors, as well as for individual women themselves, and perhaps even men.

Women working in the Canadian Federal Public Service (CFPS) face complex issues and competing demands. However, despite challenges such as obtaining further education, managing home responsibilities, and dealing with workplace issues, some have also developed and managed successful careers. Problems highlighted within literature on career development for women relate to the nature of women’s lives with their many transitional points, in which personal and organizational factors inextricably intertwine. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explore the career development and advancement of women towards and into entry executive level positions within the Canadian Federal Public Service (CFPS). Three research questions guided this inquiry: 1) How have personal factors influenced career development and advancement of women in the CFPS towards and into pre-executive and entry executive levels? 2) How have organizational factors influenced their career development and advancement? and 3) How have personal and organizational factors combined to influence their career development and advancement? This research was grounded in a social constructivist paradigm which guided the research both ontologically and epistemologically. Schwandt (1994) contends that “objective knowledge and truth is a result of perspective. Knowledge and truth are created, not discovered” (p. 125). The inquiry attempted, therefore, to understand women’s complex career development processes from a holistic perspective through their career life stories. Ten women at the pre-executive or entry executive level from various departments within the CFPS took part in the study. Data collection was carried out mainly through a series of three semi-structured interviews. The findings of the study describe how participants’ personal dispositions, formal education, and home lives (personal factors) influenced their career development and advancement. In addition, it was found that the organization’s culture of long hours, its support for learning, participants’ organizational networks, and superiors’ contributions (organizational factors) also influenced women’s careers. This study contributes to our understanding of women’s career development, thereby providing important insights for future research. The study may have implications for CFPS policymakers, career counsellors, universities responsible for educating future career counsellors, as well as for individual women themselves, and perhaps even men.

Canada’s official languages policy makes English and French the country’s official languages in federal institutions. The policy has succeeded in fostering equitable representation of both official languages groups in the federal public service and has improved capacities for the public service to serve the citizenry in its official language of choice. It is a puzzle however, that despite these advances, the Canadian federal public service continues to operate predominantly in English when both official languages on paper are equal languages of work. To explore this puzzle this dissertation asks: why, despite the promise of the Official Languages Act (OLA) 1969 for choice in language of work and the OLA 1988 that made the choice a claimable right, is there inequitable access to French as a language of work in the federal public service? Framed through a historical institutionalist approach and layering, this project analyzes the implementation of the official languages program in the federal public service from 1967-2013. This thesis argues that the implementation of the official languages program could not challenge the federal public service’s path dependency to operate predominantly in English. By analyzing the roles of actors and institutions that influenced the process, this dissertation finds that lack of structural change, inadequate managerial engagement and a false sense that official languages are engrained in the public service, can explain the persistence of English as the dominant language of work.

Canada’s official languages policy makes English and French the country’s official languages in federal institutions. The policy has succeeded in fostering equitable representation of both official languages groups in the federal public service and has improved capacities for the public service to serve the citizenry in its official language of choice. It is a puzzle however, that despite these advances, the Canadian federal public service continues to operate predominantly in English when both official languages on paper are equal languages of work. To explore this puzzle this dissertation asks: why, despite the promise of the Official Languages Act (OLA) 1969 for choice in language of work and the OLA 1988 that made the choice a claimable right, is there inequitable access to French as a language of work in the federal public service? Framed through a historical institutionalist approach and layering, this project analyzes the implementation of the official languages program in the federal public service from 1967-2013. This thesis argues that the implementation of the official languages program could not challenge the federal public service’s path dependency to operate predominantly in English. By analyzing the roles of actors and institutions that influenced the process, this dissertation finds that lack of structural change, inadequate managerial engagement and a false sense that official languages are engrained in the public service, can explain the persistence of English as the dominant language of work.

Women and men experience work differently owing to the gendered nature of work and workplaces, but there is limited insight into whether language and gender intersect to shape employment outcomes. This thesis project examines full-time employment in Ottawa-Gatineau to determine whether being French, English, or bilingual meaningfully influences employment status in the federal public service in terms of occupational attainment and employment income. A series of descriptive and inferential statistical analyses using the 2016 Canadian census are used to examine whether commuting patterns, occupational attainment, and annual employment income are significantly different across industrial sectors and between women and men, as well as between official language communities. The analysis reveals important differences in residential distribution between Anglophones and Francophones working in the federal public service as well as differences in commuting times, especially to suburban office locations. There are also important differences in occupational attainment and income attainment between women and men across official language communities, with women, especially francophone women, being more likely to occupy relatively low-pay administrative jobs in the federal public service compared to men or anglophone and bilingual women. In many ways, bilingualism in the federal public service is made real by the work of francophone women, although they are concentrated in some of the least-well paid occupations and stand to have ever more time consuming commutes as jobs are moved to suburban locations in Ottawa.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal