Women outnumber men at every level of Cyprus’ civil service

Nicosia, Cyprus. Women now outnumber men at every level of Cyprus’ civil service, including senior management, according to figures presented on Friday by Public Service Commission (PSC) chairman Giorgos Papageorgiou.

Women hold majority of senior posts

Presenting the PSC’s 2025 annual report, Papageorgiou said women account for 63 per cent of civil servants, compared with 37 per cent men.

Women also hold a majority of director and permanent secretary positions, which until a few years ago were predominantly occupied by men.

Reforms change promotion outcomes

Papageorgiou said public service reforms had enabled candidates to secure promotions based on their abilities and performance rather than seniority.

In 70 per cent of interdepartmental promotions, successful candidates were employees who would not have been promoted under the previous system because of the importance attached to length of service.

However, only 12 per cent of positions were filled by candidates from outside the department concerned.

He said the new system should be continuously monitored to assess its effectiveness and identify weaknesses.

Concern over rising evaluation scores

Despite progress in promotions, Papageorgiou described the trend in civil servant performance evaluations as disappointing, warning that the system was gradually returning to the previous practice of rating almost everyone as excellent.

Average evaluation scores have risen steadily since the new system was introduced in 2023, increasing from 8.7 out of 10 that year to 9.01 in 2024 and 9.12 in 2025.

“Gradually, steadily, over time, we are returning to the previous phenomenon where everyone was assessed as excellent in every respect,” he said.

He warned that this undermined the purpose of evaluations by making it difficult to distinguish employees according to their actual performance.