Gender Images in Public Administration: Legitimacy and the Administrative State

by Camilla M. Stivers

Overview

Extensively updated to reflect recent research and new theoretical literature, this much-anticipated Second Edition applies a gender lens to the field of public administration, looking at issues of status, power, leadership, legitimacy and change. The author examines the extent of women's historical progress as public employees, their current status in federal, state, and local governments, the peculiar nature of the organizational reality they experience, and women's place in society at large as it is shaped by government.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761921738
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	04/25/2002
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	184
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Preface
Chapter 1 Gender and Public Administration
Chapter 2 "On Tap But Not on Top ": Women in the Administrative State
Chapter 3 "Sharpening a Knife Cleverly ": The Dilemma of Expertise
Chapter 4 "Look Like a Lady, Act Like a Man ": The Dilemma of Leadership
Chapter 5 The Hero Factory: The Dilemma of Virtue
Chapter 6 From the Ground(s) Up: Women Reformers and the Rise of the Administrative State
Chapter 7 Paths Toward Change
References
Index
About the Author

Editorial Reviews

"I would urge you to buy this book... The bottom line is everyone in public administration should read this book. Translate it, challenge it, teach it, and use it as a guide to empirical research."

Kenneth J. Meier

Thinking that, perhaps, gender relations really had improved since the bad old days, as her students keep telling her, Stivers (urban affairs, Cleveland State U.) undertook the research to update her 1992 account. She did find progress in such indicators as the proportions of women at upper levels of federal, state, and local governments. However, she found little change in the reliance of public administration scholarship on images that conform to conventional notions of masculinity, and in women having to struggle to maintain a proper gender image and to balance competing demands of work and family. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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