The Organization of Career Lines: Equal Employment Opportunity and Status Advancement in a Federal Bureaucracy

In the early 1970s the federal government mandated intensified efforts to further the upward mobility of lower-level employees in the federal civil service. This paper examines the consequences of this effort for the careers of minorities and women, in particular, and lower-level employees in general, for an agency of the federal government. A greater proportion of upper-level entry-grade positions were filled by promotion after the implementation of these programs. This growth cannot be explained away by supply/demand effects. Because 90 percent of lower-level employees were women and 50 percent were non-white, the greater proportion of upper-level positions filled through promotion of lower-level employees benefitted these groups, though the benefits of higher promotion rates for non-whites were offset by other factors. However, female and non-white lower-level employees did not have a greater probability for promotion than did male and white lower-level employees, respectively, when otherfactors were controlled for. The implications of the statistical findings are discussed, and an interpretation is given of how upward mobility programs fit within the overall personnel policy of the federal government.