Empirical research on the difference that gender makes is sparse. This study is the first step toward providing evidence that agencies led by women perform better than those led by men. Using the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) data, this study examines the research question: Are women improving federal government agency performance? Preliminary results indicate that they do. The broader goal of social justice frames the discussion of findings.
AlkadryM. G.TowerL. E. (2014). Women and public service: Barriers, challenges, and opportunities. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
2.
BarshJ.YeeL. (2011). Unlocking the full potential of women in the U.S. economy (Special report produced exclusively for the Wall Street Journal Executive Task Force for Women in the Economy). New York, NY: McKinsey.
3.
BowlingC. J.WrightD. S. (1998). Change and continuity in state administration: Administrative leadership across four decades. Public Administration Review, 58, 429-494.
4.
BrunsK. M. (2013). President Obama: Nominate a woman to replace outgoing FCC chair [Women’s Media Center website blog]. Retrieved from http://www.womensmediacenter.com/blog
5.
BullardM. A.WrightD. S. (1993). Circumventing the glass ceiling: Women executives in American state governments. Public Administration Review, 53, 189-202.
6.
BurnierD. (2008). Erased history: Frances Perkins and the emergence of care-centered public administration. Administration & Society, 40, 403-422.
7.
CarrollS. J. (1985). Women as candidates in American politics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
8.
CarrollS. J. (1994). The politics of difference: Women public officials as agents of change. Stanford Law & Policy Review, 5(2), 11-20.
ConditM. D.HutchinsonJ. R. (1997). Women in public administration: Extending the metaphor of the emperor’s new clothes. American Review of Public Administration, 27, 181-198.
12.
CornwellC.KelloughJ. E. (1994). Women and minorities in federal government agencies: Examining new evidence from panel data. Public Administration Review, 54, 265-270.
13.
DesvauxG.DevillardS.Sancier-SultanS. (2010). Women at the top of corporations: Making it happen. New York, NY: McKinsey.
14.
DodsonL. D.CarrollS. J. (1991). Reshaping the agenda: Women in state legislatures. New Brunswick, NJ: Center for American Women and Politics.
15.
DolanJ. (2004). Gender equity: Illusion or reality for women in the federal executive service?Public Administration Review, 64, 299-308.
16.
Duerst-LahtiG.JohnsonC. M. (1992). Management styles, stereotypes, and advantages. In GuyM. E. (Ed.), Women and men of the states: Public administrators at the state level (pp. 125-156). New York, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
17.
Duerst-LahtiG.KellyR. M. (1995). Gender, power, leadership and governance. Ann Harbor: University of Michigan Press.
18.
FletcherJ. (1999). Disappearing acts: Gender, power, and relational practices at work. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
19.
FoxA. R.SchuhmannR. A. (1999). Gender and local government: A comparison of women and men city managers. Public Administration Review, 59, 231-242.
20.
FredericksonG. (2010). Social equity and public administration: Origins, developments, and applications. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
21.
GuyM. E. (1992). Women and men of the states: Public administrators at the state level. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
22.
GuyM. E. (1994). Organizational architecture, gender, and women’s careers. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 14(2), 77-90.
23.
GuyM. E. (2011). In search of a middle ground: Preachy, screechy, and angry versus soft, sweet, and complaint. In LevineH.D’AgostinoM. (Eds.), Women in public administration: Theory and practice (pp. 299-307). Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
24.
GuyM. E.Duerst-LahtiG. (1992). Agency culture and its effects on managers. In GuyM. E. (Ed.), Women and men of the states: Public administrators at the state level (pp. 157-158). Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
25.
GuyM. E.McCandlessS. A. (2012). Social equity: Its legacy, its promise. Public Administration Review, 72, S5-S13.
26.
GuyM. E.NewmanM. A. (2004). Women’s jobs, men’s jobs: Sex segregation and emotional labor. Public Administration Review, 64, 289-298.
27.
HaleM. M.KellyR. M. (1989). Gender, bureaucracy, and democracy. New York, NY: Greenwood Press.
28.
KellyR. M.GuyM. E.BayesJ.Duerst-LahtiG.HaleM. M.JohnsonC.. . . StanleyJ. R. (1991). Public managers in the states: A comparison of career advancement by state. Public Administration Review, 51, 402-412.
29.
KellyR. M.NewmanM. (2001). The gendered bureaucracy: Agency mission, equality of opportunity, and representative bureaucracies. Women & Politics, 22(3), 1-34.
30.
KingC. S. (1995). Sex-roles identify and decision styles: How gender helps explain the paucity of women at the top. In Duerst-LahtiG.KellyR. M. (Eds.), Gender power, leadership, and governance (pp. 67-92). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
31.
LeuenbergerD. (2011). Women in public administration: Sustainable development and social justice. In D’AgostinoM.LevineH. (Eds.), Women in public administration: Theory and practice (pp. 141-151). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
32.
LewisG. B.EmmertM. A. (1986). The sexual division of labor in federal employment. Social Science Quarterly, 67(1), 143-156.
33.
LewisG. B.NiceD. (1994). Race, sex, and occupational segregation in state and local governments. American Review of Public Administration, 24, 393-410.
34.
LowiT. (1964). At the pleasure of the Mayor: Patronage and power in New York City, 1898–1958. New York, NY: Free Press.
35.
LowiT. (1985). The personal president: Power invested, promise unfulfilled. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
36.
McGuireJ. T. (2011). Gender and the personal shaping of public administration in the United States: Mary Anderson and the Women’s Bureau, 1920–1930. Public Administration Review, 72, 265-271.
37.
MeierK. J.MastracciS. H.WilsonK. (2006). Gender and emotional labor in public organization: An empirical examination of the link to performance. Public Administration Review, 66, 899-909.
38.
MeierK. J.O’TooleL. J.Jr.BoyneG. A.WalkerR. M. (2006). Strategic management and the performance of public organizations: Testing venerable ideas against recent theories. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 17, 357-377.
39.
MeierK. J.WilkinsV. M. (2002). Gender differences in agency head salaries: The head of public education. Public Administration Review, 62, 405-411.
40.
MillerW.KerrB.ReidM. (1999). A national study of gender-based occupational segregation in municipal bureaucracies: Persistence of glass walls?Public Administration Review, 59, 218-230.
41.
NaffK. C.ThomasS. (1994). The glass ceiling revisited: Determinants of federal job advancement. Policy Studies Review, 13, 249-272.
42.
NalbandianJ. (1989, January/February). The U.S. Supreme Court’s “consensus” on affirmative action. Public Administration Review, 49, 38-45.
43.
NewmanM. A. (1994). Gender and Lowi’s thesis: Implications for career advancement. Public Administration Review, 54, 277-284.
44.
NewmanM. A. (1995). The gendered nature of Lowi’s typology. In Duerst-LahtiG.KellyR. M. (Eds.), Gender power, leadership, and governance (pp. 141-166). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
45.
NoonanM. C. (2001). The impact of domestic work on men’s and women’s wages. Journal of Marriage and Family, 63, 1134-1145.
46.
OrazemP. F.MattilaJ. P. (1998). Male-female supply to state government jobs and comparable worth. Journal of Labor Economics, 16, 95-121.
47.
PfefferJ.Davis-BlakeA. (1987). The effect of the proportion of women on salaries: The case of college administrators. Administrative Science Quarterly, 32(2), 1-24.
48.
PittsD. W. (2006). Modeling the impact of diversity management. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 26, 245-268.
49.
PittsD. W.WiseL. (2010). Workforce diversity in the new millennium: Prospects for research. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 30, 44-69.
50.
PittsD.W. (2011). A Little Less Conversation, a Little More Action: Using Empirical Research to Promote Social Equity.Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. doi: 10.1093/jopart/muq071
51.
RiccucciN.SaidelJ. (1997). The representativeness of state-level leaders: A missing piece of the representative bureaucracy puzzle. Public Administration Review, 57, 423-430.
52.
RipleyR. B.FranklinG. A. (1991). Congress, the bureaucracy, and public policy (5th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
53.
SaidelJ. R.LoscoccoK. (2005). Agency leaders, gendered institutions, and representative bureaucracy. Public Administration Review, 65, 158-170.
54.
Saint-GermainM. A. (1989). Does their difference make a difference?Social Science Quarterly, 70, 956-968.
55.
SchachterH. L. (2008a). Feminist theory and the political dimension of performance measurement: A preliminary analysis. Public Performance & Management Review, 32, 263-274.
56.
SchachterH. L. (2008b). Lillian Borrone: Weaving a web to revitalize port commerce in New York and New Jersey. Public Administration Review, 68, 61-67.
57.
SchachterH. L. (2011). The New York School of Philanthropy, the Bureau of Municipal Research, and the trail of the missing women: A public administration history detective story. Administration & Society, 43, 3-21.
58.
ShieldsP. (2008). Rediscovering the taproot: Is classical pragmatism the route to renew public administration?Public Administration Review, 68, 205-221.
59.
ShieldsP. (2011). Jane Addams’ theory of democracy and social ethics: Incorporating a feminist perspective. In LevineH.D’AgostinoM. (Eds.), Women in public administration: Theory and practice (pp. 15-34). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
60.
StiversC. (1993). Gender images in public administration: Legitimacy and the administrative state. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE.
61.
StiversC. (1995). Settlement women and bureau men: Constructing a usable past for public administration. Public Administration Review, 55, 522-529.
62.
StiversC. (2000). Bureau men, settlement women: Constructing public administration in the progressive era. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press.
63.
SzymborskiL. (1996). Why are there so few women managers?Public Management, 78(12), 11-15.
64.
TameriusK. L. (1995). Sex, gender, and leadership in the representation of women. In Duerst-LahtiG.KellyR. M. (Eds.), Gender power, leadership, and governance (pp. 93-112). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
65.
Tolleson-RinehartS. (1991). Do women leaders make a difference? Substance, style, and perception. In DodsonD. L. (Ed.), Gender and policymaking: Studies of women in office (pp. 93-102). New Brunswick, NJ: Center for Women and Politics, Eagleton Institute of Politics.
66.
ValianV. (1998). Why so slow? The advancement of women. Cambridge: MA: MIT Press.
67.
VoldenC.WisemanA. E.WitterD. E. (2013). When are women more effective lawmakers than men?American Journal of Political Science, 57, 326-341.
68.
WiseL. R.TschirhartM. (2000). Examining empirical evidence on diversity effects: How useful is diversity research for public sector managers?Public Administration Review, 60, 386-395.
