Women now make up 49.8% of the senior civil service, meaning they are closer than ever to having the same representation as men at senior levels.
The newly-published 2026 Civil Service Statistics show that, across all grades, women now represent 54.7% of the civil service workforce – with 304,760 women and 252,410 men working in the civil service.
Women outnumber men at all grades except SCS – with Grade 6/7 switching sides last year. The SCS looks likely to follow.
Back in 2008, just a third of SCS jobs were occupied by women. This rose to 40% by 2016 and last year reached 49.2% before rising to 49.8% in April 2026.
The statistics release does not go into detail on the representation reached at each level within the SCS: (SCS1, SCS2, SCS3 and SCS4).
The figures do not include those without a known sex.
Gender pay gap falls to new low
Meanwhile, the gender pay gap for the civil service has dropped again to a new low since civil service workforce-wide reporting of the gap began in 2020.
The median gender pay gap has reduced from 6.4% in 2025 to 5.7% in 2026. The mean gender pay gap has also gone down, dropping from 6.9% in 2025 to 5.8% in 2026. These are the lowest reported gaps for both measures.
The median bonus gender pay gap has increased from 14.3% in 2025 to 20.6% in 2026, while the mean bonus gender pay gap has decreased from 22.5% to 20.3% in the same period.
In line with previous years, a higher proportion of women received a bonus compared to men (75.5% and 71.4% respectively).
Women remain under-represented in the highest pay quartile (49.4% women compared to 50.6% men) and overrepresented in the lowest pay quartile (60.6% women compared to 39.4% men).