ECONSPEAK: A Journal of Advances in Management IT & Social Sciences,

Vol. 7, Issue 12, December 2017 Impact Factor 5.132 ISSN: (2231-4571)
www.skirec.org Email Id: [email protected]

Camilla Stivers and Feminism in the field of Public Administration

Dr. Sadhana Bhandari
Lecturer
Department of Public Administration
Govt. Dungar College, Bikaner

Dr. Ratan Lal Kumawat

Dr. Ompal Kumar Kalawat

Abstract- One of the most prominent voices who questioned the absence and issues
concerning women in the field of Public Administration is Camilla Stivers. “Gender images
in Public Administration” (1993) written by her is considered to be a pathbreaking book that
throws light in gender issues that till date had been left out of the arena of Public
Administration. The basic theme put forth by her is that dilemma of gender is embedded in
the images of expertise, leadership and virtue that are being used to legitimize administrative
power. She argues that these values have masculine attributes which are used to put man in a
privilege position while disadvantaging women.This paper focuses on her ideas towards this
issue.
Key words- Administration, Feminism, Gender, Public, Women,
The field of Public Administration currently lacks feminist perspective i.e. one that
problematizes women’s historical exclusion from Public Administration theory and raises
topics and questions neglected as a result. According to Stivers there are important areas
where a feminist perspective might offer fresh insights-
1- The question of administrative knowledge
2- The nature of administrative discretion
3- The model of ideal public servant
4- And the dimensions of the administrative state

According to Stivers to be a feminist in Public Administration one needs to follow three

things-

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Vol. 7, Issue 12, December 2017 Impact Factor 5.132 ISSN: (2231-4571)
www.skirec.org Email Id: [email protected]

1- To the idea that gender is a crucially useful category of analysis a framework or lens
that enables one to see important things that otherwise remain obscured or invisible.
2- A critical perspective on women’s current status and prospects
3- And Gerda Lerner puts it, to a “ system of ideas and practices which assume that
men and women must share equally in the work , in the privileges, in defining and
dreaming of the world” (Strivers,2005)
Administration whether public or private is commonly perceived to be a gender
neutral activity. Its principles and the execution of the same are generally considered
as areas in which gender plays no role.
In Public Administration, merit and efficiency are the key words. Results and out-put
are not to be seen as mediated by how they affect the lives of different genders. As
against the gender blind notions, Public Administration seek to develops a critique of
the practice of administration as well as develop new concepts and vocabularies that
will act as guides to study the practice of Public Administration.
In an article in Administrative Theory and Praxis, Janet Hutchinson and Hollie Mann
(2004) expressed that there is yet not a “defining body of feminist theory in Public
Administration, they attribute this lack itself to histories of exclusion of women from
positions of power in general and more specifically to a narrow but dominant model
of Public Administration that reduces the potential for ongoing feminist praxis”

They further add that while the liberal historic concern with equality had led to many
advances, it has also on the other hand restricted the creative development of a
feminist Public Administration theory and to rectify these conditions they urge that
Public Administration scholars should “ develop a body of feminist theories as well
as distinctively feminist praxis to add to the growing body of theoretical work in
other disciplines.
Strivers(1993)also contends that despite the “apparent neutrality” Public
Administration is a “structurally male” what is constantly being missed or ignored is
that the “Public” dimension of the Public Administration is “gender dimension”.
She points out public power justifies itself by referring to public interests and public
good. But “ this publicness is problematic because it is historically grounded in an

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Vol. 7, Issue 12, December 2017 Impact Factor 5.132 ISSN: (2231-4571)
www.skirec.org Email Id: [email protected]

understanding of the public sphere as a male preserve” distinguishing itself from the
domestic spaces which is both “the primary life space and responsibility of women”.
Stivers examines the three main characteristics of
1. Expertise
2. Leadership
3. And Value and concludes that all three values are shaped and constructed in a
masculine image and history
Against Expertise she finds that it is attended by four aspects -
Objectivity, authority, hierarchialism and brotherhood which are values
according to her that are “inconsistent with the widely accepted notions of
womanhood and requires a social order which subordinates women”.
Likewise the way Leadership has been characterized as decision maker,
definer of reality etc. conflicts with expectations of women.
Lastly forVirtues it has a long history heroic, male being guardians of the
public.
Stivers says recent decades have seen increasing number of women in U.S.
public services as elected and career officials. Yet, progress has been slow, a
glass ceiling remains, and women’s salaries have continued to lag behind
men’s.,
“ Despite laws and regulations, cultural stereotypes and attitudes present
women in public service with a double bind: Look like a lady, act like a man
,” she says, since ancient Greece the public has been defined as a space for
men,in contrast to the household, the space for women.”

Stivers will discuss some of the taken- for- granted gender assumptions that continue to
restrict women’s public activities and highlight some of the contributions women have made
to the public good as they struggled to find an equal place in public services.

The problems with the public administrative theory from a feminist perspective are:

- the match between widespread ideas about masculinity and the norms of
professionalism, leadership and management

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 ECONSPEAK: A Journal of Advances in Management IT & Social Sciences,
Vol. 7, Issue 12, December 2017 Impact Factor 5.132 ISSN: (2231-4571)
www.skirec.org Email Id: [email protected]

- the extent to which bureaucratic structures and procedures, administrative career

patterns, and the dynamics of public organisational life depends upon women’s
disproportionate responsibility for domestic work
- the administrative state’s part in sustaining gender roles that limit women’s life
choices
- the supressed feminity of important administrative canons alike responsiveness,
service, and benevolence
- heedless universalization of male practices and experiences which are made to stand
for humanity as a whole and
- the reinforcement of material realities- e.g., double burden of house work and paid
employment that working women bear – the oppress women

“Transformation will happen not as a result of selecting the future on a grand scale but will
evolve out of countless conversations and situations that bring together around particular
problems”

Bibliography

Stivers, C.(2000) Bureau men, settlement women: Constructing public administration in

Progressive era Lawrence : University Press of Cansus

Stivers, C. (2002) Gender I mages in Public Administration: Legitimacy and the

Administrative State

Stivers, C. (2008)” Public Administration’s Myths of Sisyphus” Administration and Society

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