Key Concepts and Terms

• Classic public administration theory
  Morton and Lindquist (1997) have discussed ways in which Mary Parker Follett, a classic writer in public administration theory, may be considered a precursor of feminist theories of public administration.

• Gender equality
  Stivers' (1993, 2002) seminal work on feminist theory in public administration focused on the history and present distribution of women in public service roles, "glass ceiling" issues, and issues pertaining to gender and leadership style both in general and in relation to administrative reform.

  Guy (1993) came to supporting empirical conclusions in her examination of two decades of public service affirmative action. She found the number of women in decision-making positions to be disproportionately low compared to their percentage of the public work force.

• Gender representation linked to policy output
  Research by Keiser, Wilkins, Meier, & Holland (2002), using data from an educational context, provide evidence that passive representation in the public workforce leads to active representation in policy results, implying that as gender equality becomes more prevalent in public service, one may expect different policy outcomes. This confirmed earlier work by Blackmore (1995), which found that in an Australian educational setting, women were a force for equity and reform as they moved into senior positions in the late 1980s, overcoming a previously 'masculinist' bureaucratic culture which had been technicist in orientation. Research empirically linking gender representation to policy output also supported the longstanding call by feminist policy scholars such as Hawkesworth (1994), who had defined the purpose of feminist scholarship to be to reshape dominant paradigms to give greater priority to women's needs and concerns, as well as to research methodologies that are neither gender-biased nor gender-blind.

• Focus on social commitment
  Public opinion polling shows women to be more supportive of social policies, more favorable to gun control, more supportive of health care initiatives, etc. In this context, some feminist authors such Grogan as (2000) have argued that women can and may play a critical role in transforming public-sector leadership roles in the direction of greater social commitment.

• Focus on the social
  Misztal (2005) argues that sociologists and others have a misplaced emphasis on "society" that than "the social" when analyzing organizations, processes, and interactions. In any phenomenon involving interactions there is an optimal balance between formality and informality. An enhanced quality of social and personal life requires this balance, harmonizing the three styles of interaction, which are civility, sociability, and intimacy.

  Misztal draws on three theoretical veins: (1) Robert Putnam's development of the concept of social capital; (2) Richard Sennett's treatment of the shifting relationship between the public and the private; and (3) the work of Touraine, Urry, Bauman and Castells, who call for a new agenda for a ‘sociology beyond the social,’ emphasizing limitations of equating "the social" with "society."

Illustrative Hypotheses

• Women are underrepresented in upper public management and therefore in organizational decision-making.

• The higher the proportion of women in decision-making, the greater the priority given to gender equality in the organization.

• The higher the proportion of women in decision-making, the greater the priority given to gender-sensitive methods and processes.

• The higher the proportion of women in decision-making, the greater the priority given to equity as a performance value.

• The higher the proportion of women in decision-making, the greater the priority given to organizational reform.

• The higher the proportion of women in decision-making, the greater the priority given to social commitment as an organizational value.

• The higher the proportion of women in the organization, the stronger are organizational norms regarding civility and sociability.

Bibliography

• Blackmore, Jill (1995). Policy as dialogue: Feminist administrators working for educational change. Gender and Education 7(3): 293 - 314.
• Grogan, Margaret (2000). Laying the groundwork for a reconception of the superintendency from feminist postmodern perspectives. Educational Administration Quarterly 36(1): 117-142.
• Guy, Mary E. (1993). Women in public administration: Three steps forward, two steps backward: The status of women's integration into public management. Public Administration Review 53(4): 285-292.
• Hawkesworth, Mary (1994). Policy studies within a feminist frame. Journal of Policy Sciences 27(2-3): 97-118.
• Keiser, L. R., Wilkins, V. M, Meier, K. J., & Holland, C. A. (2002). Lipstick and logarithms: Gender, institutional context, and representative bureaucracy. American Political Science Review 96(3): 553-564
• Misztal, B. A. (2005). The new importance of the relationship between formality and informality. Feminist Theory 6(2): 173 - 194.
• Morton, Noel O'R. & Lindquist, S. A. (1997). Revealing the feminist in Mary Parker Follett Administration & Society 29(3): 348-371.
• Stivers, Camilla (1990). The shape of the stone: A feminist reflection on practical wisdom in public administration. Paper presented for the Public Administration Theory Network Workshop, American Society for Public Administration Annual Conference, Los Angeles, California, April, 1990.
• Stivers, Camilla (1993). Gender images in public administration. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Second edition, 2002.

Copyright 1998, 2006 by G. David Garson.