The Gendered Bureaucracy

Abstract

The implementation of equal opportunity policies across governmental bureaucracies has not uniformly advanced the interests of men, women and minorities therein. This paper examines this common occurrence of the unequal outcomes associated with equal opportunity policies. Political scientists have an abiding interest in equal employment opportunity and affirmative action policies and procedures in governmental agencies because these are a principal means of achieving demographic and substantive representation in government. We find the prevailing approach to analyzing these equal opportunity policies rather inadequate–and, indeed, perhaps even part of the larger problem. We propose a new conceptual framework, one that moves beyond conventional demographic (passive) representation to a consideration of substantive (active) representation. The constraints of moving from demographic representational bureaucracy to substantive representational bureaucracy are examined as we integrate institutional and policy analysis perspectives in our consideration of the gendered bureaucracy.