Beyond Representation: Gender, Authority, and City Managers

• Author: Susannah Bruns Ali,Sebawit G. Bishu,Mohamad G. Alkadry
• DOI: 10.1177/0734371X17718030
• Published date: 01 June 2019
• Date: 01 June 2019

https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X17718030

Review of Public Personnel Administration

2019, Vol. 39(2) 300 –319

© The Author(s) 2017

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DOI: 10.1177/0734371X17718030

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Article

Beyond Representation:

Gender, Authority, and

City Managers

Mohamad G. Alkadry1, Sebawit G. Bishu2,

and Susannah Bruns Ali3

Abstract

For the last 50 years, the U.S. government has worked to address the sex pay gap

in the workforce. Nevertheless, the pay gap remains persistent across sectors and

organizational hierarchies. This study investigates the direct and indirect effects of

sex and authority profile on the pay gap of city managers in the United States. The

study uses ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis to predict the relationship

between a city manager’s sex and authority profile variables as well as the relationship

between authority profile variables and a city manager’s annual salary. Our OLS

analysis shows that sex (being a male city manager) along with workplace authority

variables are all positive and significant predictors of pay. The study also finds that,

on average, female city managers earn 73% of what male city managers earn. They

also manage 60% of the number of employees and oversee 62% of the annual budget

compared with male city managers.

Keywords

city manager, pay systems, authority, representation, gender and public personnel

administration, pay gap

Introduction

As the U.S. struggles with concerns about income disparities and equity issues, it is

critical that we continue to explore whether there is equity in authority and pay for

people who nominally hold the same position. The U.S. political arena has engaged in

1University of Connecticut, Hartford, CT, USA

2University of Colorado, Denver, USA

3Florida International University, Miami, USA

Corresponding Author:

Mohamad G. Alkadry, Professor, Department of Public Piolicy, University of Connecticut, UConn

Hartford Campus, 10 Prospect St, Hartford, CT 06103, USA.

Email: Mohamad.Alkadry@Uconn.edu

718030ROPXXX10.1177/0734371X17718030Review of Public Personnel AdministrationAlkadry et al.

research-article2017

Alkadry et al. 301

intermittent discussions of gender pay disparities for decades. More than 50 years after

the passage of the landmark Equal Pay Act of 1963, pay disparities persist. Women

earn 78 cents on the dollar compared with men, and the disparities are even greater for

African American and Latina women who earn 64 and 56 cents on the dollar, respec-

tively, compared with Caucasian men (Official Webpage of the White House, n.d.).

Congressional action seems less likely after multiple failures to pass the Paycheck

Fairness Act with votes in 2009, 2012, 2014, and 2015.

This study first explores the extent to which women are represented in the top

administrative position in local governments and the extent to which they occupy the

city management positions with the highest authority profile compared with men.

Second, the study explores whether sex and authority profile explain pay gaps within

the study population. This study explores sex-based disparities in representation, pay,

and authority profile of top municipal management. We focus on city managers

because they are the highest nonelected leaders in local government.

The city manager position was first created in the early 20th century to establish a

separation between politics and administration in local governments. As is the case in

most senior management positions, women’s representation among city and county

managers is substantially lower than that of men. The International City/County

Manager’s Association (ICMA) reports that as of 2012, female city managers com-

prise 19.8% of all city managers in the United States. This study addresses two funda-

mental issues concerning equity in representation in the public sector. First, the study

examines the authority profile of the positions that women occupy compared with men

in the domain of municipal government management. The authority profile of a man-

ager includes a municipality’s annual budget, its population (number of residents), and

the number of full-time personnel working in the municipal government. Second,

building on the literature that relates authority profile to compensation (e.g., see

Bygren & Gähler, 2012; McGuire & Reskin, 1993; Wolf & Fligstein, 1979), this study

also investigates whether the gender pay gap persists after we control for a manager’s

authority profile. Essentially, we explore whether there is a gap in the authority profile

for male and female city managers, and whether such a gap explains disparities in pay.

The article first explores the issue of workplace segregation to identify position-

level segregation and subsequently issues of authority disparities among men and

women in the workforce. Utilizing secondary data compiled from salary surveys in 12

states that publish such surveys, the researchers in this study collected salary and

authority data on 1,075 city managers. The study next examines the relationship

between sex and authority profile, and then the relationship between pay and authority

profile among city managers.

Literature Review

Sex-Based Workplace Segregation

In both the private and public sectors, women remain highly concentrated in lower pay-

ing jobs and in female-dominated agencies, occupations, and lower echelon positions