Feminist Perspective to Public Administration PDF

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Feminist perspective to public administration

Lesson: Feminist Perspective to Public Administration Lesson Developer: Dr. Namrata Singh College/Department: Miranda House/Department of Political Science

Feminist perspective to public administration

Table of Contents

Feminist Perspective to Public Administration •

Introduction

•

Waves of Feminism

•

Impact on Administration •

Tracing the History

•

Camilla Stivers : main thesis and her works

•

Governance and Gender

•

Conclusion:The Road Ahead

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Summary

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Practise Questions

•

References

Feminist perspective to public administration Introduction Noble laureate Amartya Sen says, “Within each community, nationality and class the burden of hardship falls disproportionately on women.” Despite this above stated fact, the women across the world are treated indifferently. The fifty percent of world population is women and as per the world economic profile they contribute fifty percent of food production, make up thirty percent of the official labor force and utilize sixty percent of all working hours. But when it comes to receive the annals of the hard labor, the data prove that they get a meager ten percent of world income and less than one percent of the world property. The feminist theory of public administration interprets public administration with its various features with a feminist insight. This theory utilizes gender as a fundamental element in societal examination and is committed to the design of the idea of women and men sharing equally in the work, as in the privilege, and in dreaming and shaping the world. Feminist ideas of public administration employ gender as a focus through which to analyze critically women’s present status and function in civic agencies. Specifically, feminists expose and test the assumption that a tradition of male-dominated public administration has fashioned anything other than a "masculine interpretation" of the area. The uncomplicated adjective, feminist, asks the public administrator to assess his or her premises in a hunt for masculine interpretations, obscured beneath a history of academic discourse and practice (Stivers, 2002). The theory problematizes women's past exclusion and alienation from public administration theory and raises issues, topics and relevant questions neglected as an effect. Four important issues are suggested as areas where a feminist perspective might offer fresher insights: the problem of administrative comprehension; the form of the ideal civil servant; the nature of administrative prudence; and the proportions of the administrative state. According to Camilla Strivers, “As long as we go on viewing the enterprise of administration as genderless, women will continue to face their present Hobson’s choice, which is to either to adopt a masculine administrative identity or accept marginalization in the bureaucratic hierarchy.” (Strivers, 2002)

Feminist perspective to public administration While feminists are often attacked as radical and unfounded in their claims, their, questioning accepted foundations and assumptions have led administrators to realities and buried truths which are imperative, important and essential for ultimately making administration a gender neutral institution.

www.iasplanner.com accessed on 28-09-2015 Waves of Feminism If we are to link administrative thought with ‘feminist approaches’, we need to understand continuous changes in feminist thought. Basically grown and built up in the Western social, cultural and political milieu, the feminist movement has gone through consecutive and often overlapping stages of evolution and development. It was only in the late 1800s and early 1900s that structured feminist movements were seen clearly. This can certainly be addressed as the first wave of feminism in the world. Oddly, women were viewed personal and exclusive property, bought and sold through marriage, and lacked the right to vote in any democratic establishment, or the right to own property. This was the backdrop for the ascent of the first wave seeking equal rights for the women, typified by the Suffragettes who demanded voting rights for women and opposed the practice of abortion. The second wave of feminism is often linked with mid 1900s and thereafter until 1980s. the action was explosive in the United States, and then extended all across the world. The movement fiercely propagated equality between men and women, as well s addressing issues like sexual freedom, childcare, matters of health and welfare, work, and reproductive liberties including the right to abortion. It also fought against continuous stereotyping of the women, for example their so called inability to hold any occupation save being a housewife, and the defined limits on their socio-cultural freedoms. It actively advocated the right of woman pursue a career.

Feminist perspective to public administration The third wave of feminism is actually a continuation of the second wave, starting in the late twentieth century. It recognized the shortcomings of the earlier movement. It also focused on issues like racial attitudes, gender and feminism. It spread into global proportions with different sides of feminism becoming apparent on concerns specific to distinct societies. It would be a mistake to imply that this movement has come to a standstill. It is incredibly active and vibrant today, raising thought provoking questions dealing with the need for a more secure and egalitarian work environment, identification of human emotion in relational contexts and other important issues and topics not only for women, but for a safer, wholesome and more holistic human condition in the future. Impact on Administration Tracing the history Tracing the history of feminist perspective in administrative studies, Mary Parker Follett emerges as a precursor to these trends. She wrote, in the 1920s: "It seems to me that whereas power usually means power-over, the power of some person or group over some other person or group, it is possible to develop the conception of power-with, a jointly developed power, a co-active, not a coercive power." (Follett,1927).The concept of "power-over" versus "power-with" became a recurring theme in feminism from the 1970s, and remains in active and conscious use today.

Mary Parker Follett (1868-1933)

Feminist perspective to public administration www.wikimedia.org accessed on 28-09-2015 American social reformer, management consultant and a pioneer in the areas of organizational theory and behavior . The feminist dialogue in administration can be divided into broader categories– descriptive and conceptual. Descriptive approaches emphasize the existing gender inequalities on the basis of observed proofs within the structure of administration. On the other hand conceptual discourse researches the attitudes and the ideas related to gender to reorganize the existing perspective of public administration. While the established philosophers stressed on descriptive practice, the conceptual theorization has begun only recently.It was around 1975, that the feminist claim in public administration developed. ASPA under the direction of Nesta M.Gallas organized a convention on ‘Women in Public Administration’. Issues like women’s situation in administration and plans for their amelioration within the institution, facilitating giving more responsibility to women administrators were discussed. ‘The Status of Women in State and Local Government’, (1973) by Leonard D. Eydes and “Why Not More women City Managers” (1973) by Judith Mohr also highlighted the gender biases within the so called impartiality of these structures. One of the earliest efforts to scrutinize the elementary theoretical assumptions, to rethink the concepts was published in a piece “The Coming Death of Administrative Man’ by Robert B. Denhardt and Jan Perkins(1976).The article laid bare the avowed universal unbiased

orientation

of

organizational

premise

is

in

‘

all

veracity

culturally

masculine’.However the forger of the Feminist administrative theory has to be traced back to Camilla Stivers and her influential work- Gender images in Public administration (1993) Camilla Stivers : main thesis and her works

Feminist perspective to public administration

www.infed.org accessed on 29-09-2015

Camilla Stivers (born 1938) A renowned scholar and professor of Public Administration

www.utsa.edu/www.amazon.com accessed on 29-09-2015

Feminist theory is critical of the existing truth. Feminist scholars of Public Administration like Camilla Strivers emphasize the blue print for developing a gender neutral management. She sees women’s the historical exclusion of women from specific pursuits (such as business & politics) and directed confinement to others (such as homemaking and housekeeping) as, if not always intentional on the behalf of the

individual man,

certainly not “nature”. This view addresses the pre-existing dichotomy in gender positions by seeking to change it to a certain extent. Camilla Strivers says that the ostensible distinctions in both men’s and women’s behavior are largely collateral effects of social gender roles. By opening up existing and vacant

Feminist perspective to public administration provisions to women, such differences will fade away and/or largely vanish. Perceived distinctions between men and women, whether innate or not, matter. Current societal arrangement and customs are seen not as “human” but as the fruition of male experience and principles. Women’s experiences and the virtues emerging from them (nurturance, connectedness, values, perception) are not only dissimilar, they are creditable in their own right, and need to be instilled in a direct or indirect manner into existing measures. The need is to rise above the tension set up by the first two. While the commemorative view of women’s experience provides central, genuine differences among all women, which have been produced by looming influences of race, class, standing, and culture, there are no “women’s values”- many, if not most, feminine standards and behaviors have been cultivated completely or partially within a

pre-existing context of male

supremacy . The requirement is to bring into play, rather than ignore, the neglected standpoints reproduced in the certain understanding of just one, specific group of women. We should try to further open up the discussion of public administration to these outlooks. Instead of being disposed to being thoroughly critical, the requirement is for building from, rather than casting aside, thoughts that are already fundamental and valued in the field. To rebuff, cast aside, or treat as immaterial the central issues in the field would amount not to creating a “feminist perspective on public administration” but to facilitating a revolution rather than a change. Modern state is build upon the essential connectedness of human beings rather than inaccessible human existence and of community policy based on reciprocated needs instead of adjudication of opposing claims among disengaged utility-maxmizers. The quest for neutrality leads to understanding the actuality that there may not be universal male or female experience and knowledge, clearly there are in every society collectively constructed genders. We can effectively exercise this knowledge to uncover the incompleteness and inadequacies of our understandings. Strivers says that the feminist values are less based on existing hierarchy and more on active interaction, therefore less elitist and more democratic. It views power not only as a means of ascendancy but also as form of enabling and facilitating increased competence. Leadership as facilitation rather than the issuing orders, and influence coupled with authority as answerable capability rather than as sequence of domination

Feminist perspective to public administration While feminists are often attacked as radical and unsubstantiated in their assertions, the assembly provides important food for deliberation. That is, questioning premises and postulations that have led administrators to reality is important to judge the significance of these truths. The central idea of Strivers’ thesis is that the dilemma of gender is embedded in the illustrations of proficiency, leadership and virtue and value that are used to legitimize the administrative state. She says these images have notable masculine features, and they help in bestowing political and economic concessions on the bearers of the conventionally masculine values, disadvantaging those who display the culturally feminine ones. This contributes to, and is upheld by, power play in society at large that divide resource on the basis of gender and impacts people’s prospects and their identities in the world. The feminist movement engendered new theories of power, calibre, the temperament of organisation, and of leadership & profession. Strivers’ main interest in Gender Images has been essentially to establish a certainty. She warns that her work contributes very less if the justification of public administration entails simply gathering support and appreciation for administrative business as usual. Concentrating on traditional gender representations of expertise, leadership and assets, Strivers’ breaks down the three main characteristics which are use to guard the legitimacy and authority of the administrative state. This approach may be seen as historical. She utilises the experience of women in the years gone by and current societal anticipations to understand that the future has much in store for public administration’s capacity to fully and truthfully, include women at all echelons of the existing hierarchy and decision making. She also argues that to substantiate the claims of the public administration exist in space that (1) Depends for its rationality and its coherence on the insubordination of women through their assignment to a set of duties that are always considered, no matter how requisite, less imperative and less creditable. (2) Limits both women’s chances to partake in the public sphere and the amount of time and energy they have to devote to such activities In her view, these are paradoxical terms.

Thus she highlights the masculine domain which overshadows the growth of gender neutral universal administration

Feminist perspective to public administration Masculinity impact

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_in_public_administration#/media/File:Pattern_of_ Hegemonic_Masculinity.jpg

According to Camilla Stivers, to be a feminist in Public administration ones needs to follow three things •

“to the idea that gender is a crucially useful category of analysis, a framework or lens that enables one t see important things that otherwise remain obscured or invisible;

•

to a critical perspective on women’s current status and prospects; and

•

as Gerda Lerner puts it ,to a “system of ideas and practices which assumes that men and women must share equally in the work ,in the privileges, in the defining and dreaming of the world”.(Strivers,2005)

Governance and Gender The writings of postmodern writers such as Simone de Beauvoir and Judith Butler, wrote on the social construction of the "masculine" and "feminine." It looked at traditional public administration's "hard" approach that conflicts with ideas that have been referred to as "soft." The postmodern feminism created a synthesis between these two approaches, one that combines the best features of both the "hard" and "soft" styles of public administration. The postmodern feminism jars administrators from their comfort zones and in the process, generates new and innovative modes of thinking. However, an all too recognizable orthodoxy is apparent in the works of many public administration scholars is what is known as ‘equity feminism’. This is the body of the premise that illustrates and demands correction of the problems of socio-economic discrimination arising from gender. The common pattern that can be spotted in the writings produced by feminist scholars in public administration began from the broader legal framework of justice. The so-called Equity Feminism, at its root, has been engaged

Feminist perspective to public administration with fair conduct in the way women are treated in employment. Also, there are concerns with the present way the management processes and policies are used to adversely affect the chances of women. This traditional volume of literature addresses some of the very basic institutional deficiencies in the bureaucratic structure. Scholars following this stream question the number of women in state organizations, their position or power as compared to men or even other minorities, and conduct as well as push similar research and studies. In essence, this conventional literature does not target bringing about a change in the manner in which the government is managed or administered so much, as it aims to provide ample opportunity to women within the current setup, methodology and practice. The larger part of Equity Feminist literature, discussions centre around issues like the number of women participating and partaking in the different levels of government, the alleged biases against them and the specific conditions that prevent a larger contribution of women, etc. All of these activities are focused at improving, in distinct ways, the level of participation of women in the institutions of public administration, and redressing any structural wrongs within the male driven bureaucratic organization. But it is important to note that in today’s broader field of Governance, the gender concern is still groping for centrality. To quote Martha Nussbaum in introduction to her work ‘Essays on gender and governance ’–“the relationship between gender and governance has too often been neglected in both theoretical and empirical work. Until very recently, most influential political thought has been built around a conceptual distinction between the public realm of politics, military affairs and administration, and the private realm of family and domestic life. Women’s role, in a wide range of traditions and in theoretical work influenced by them, has typically been associated with the private realm and men’s role with the public realm. The public/private distinction has been

thoroughly

criticized

as

being

in

many

ways

misleading

and

untenable.

Nevertheless, it continues to influence both theoretical and empirical work, with the result that women’s efforts to gain a voice in governance have often been ignored. When it comes to conventional studies of public administration or public organizations, the feminist approaches to administration/organization have been generally concerned with two basic issues 1) identifying and reducing gender based inequalities 2) promoting a more egalitarian workplace As regards the second issue centred on workplace, the feminist concerns are focused on the disadvantages faced by women in their workplaces, and on the

Feminist perspective to public administration diverse social, organisational and individual factors that produce and reinforce women’s subordination to men in the workplace.”(Nussbaum,2003)

Martha Nussbaum www.smh.com.au accessed on 29-09-2015 (born May 6, 1947) an American philosopher and her work on capabilities

has

often

focused

on

the

unequal

freedoms

and

opportunities of women, and she has developed ...