Journal of Public Affairs Education

Every MPA student learns about organization theory but too few learn to “see” gender, both within the public service workforce and among clientele of the agency. Because organizations employ gendered structures and processes, it is incumbent on faculty to teach students not just about organizational architecture, but also how to identify the architectural elements that differentially influence women and men. Using a critical gender lens, we demonstrate how this point of view illuminates organizational dynamics that are otherwise assumed to be “normal.” With gender silence, inequities are perpetuated. A framework for incorporating gender cognizance in teaching is provided.

The representation of women in faculty roles within universities broadly and within public affairs departments specifically has been evolving over the past three decades. However, diversifying gender representation in public affairs faculties is not sufficient. Barriers for success remain for women in public affairs departments. Bias exists in hiring and promotion decisions, imbalanced expectations of institutional norms and expectations persist, and fault lines emerge through the diversification of departments. Inclusion is the necessary next step to make representation more meaningful implementation of diversity. The article provides suggestions on how public affairs departments can promote more inclusive climates to elicit the positive effects of gender diversity and alleviate the negative consequences of more diverse faculties.

This study reviews social equity within the public administration academy using critical race theory and intersectionality as frameworks. The researcher analyzes secondary data on doctorate degrees and tenure status earned by faculty members disaggregated by gender and race, contextualizing results with analysis of data from individual interviews of 14 African American women scholars in the academy. Findings suggest there are more nuanced reasons behind negative outcomes for scholars from underrepresented backgrounds. Beyond racism and sexism, there appears to be an inhospitable climate toward social equity related service and scholarship – some of the very tools many underrepresented faculty members use to combat the negative impacts of racism and sexism inside and outside of the academy. Implications for the academy and future research opportunities are presented.

This study investigates the question of whether there are gender differences in the choice of specializations/concentrations by students enrolled in Master’s Programs in Public Administration (MPA), and considers potential implications for MPA students and the broader field of public administration. We analyzed data provided by NASPAA-accredited MPA programs to identify if gender differences exist in students’ concentration selections. After obtaining information on students’ concentrations, we surveyed MPA directors, asking them if they, in their experience as program directors, noticed any variability in preferences for concentrations across genders. Our expectations, based on the literature, regarding the gendered nature of MPA specializations/concentrations were validated in the case of Budgeting/Finance, and City and State, which our analysis found to be statistically significantly skewed male, and in the case of Health, Nonprofit and Human Resources, which were found, to be overrepresented by women by the same measure of conferred degrees.

A course on gender and public policy can introduce students to methods of policy analysis in the context of social-justice problems. Using a combination of empirical studies and analytic tools, students learn how social conditions and policies differentially affect women and men, and they can identify implications for gender equity. But our world includes non-binary gender types—transgender, genderqueer, and intersex people (some of whom are our students). How can an analysis built on strictly binary comparisons be reconfigured to include more gender diversity? The answers depend in part on how gender is conceptualized (is it a fixed, measurable dimension of identity or something socially constructed?). Exploring three conceptual approaches to gender, this article identifies three more inclusive teaching and research strategies: the expansion of gender types in quantitative analysis, the consideration of non-binary gender social roles, and the interrogation of binary inequalities assumed to be natural and inevitable.

This case examines key change management challenges faced by public managers by discussing multiple policy and procedural changes introduced in the Primary & Secondary Healthcare (P&SH) Department, Punjab, Pakistan to improve its medicine procurement process. Under immense political pressure to introduce quick, visible and effective changes in the quality of medicine available in government facilities, the P&SH department initiated multiple change initiatives to improve its medicine procurement process. While this resulted in availability of top rated brand medicine in government hospitals, the annual cost of procurement increased by more than 75% prompting criticism from some quarters. There was also limited endorsement of this initiative by the frontline staff of the P&SHD limiting its popularity in the public. The administrative head of the P&SHD was, therefore, faced with a dilemma; whether to continue with the new procurement model or revert to the old one.