Book Review: Women in Public Administration: Theory and Practice

• Author: Rashmi Chordiya
• DOI: 10.1177/0734371X17723402
• Published date: 01 September 2017
• Date: 01 September 2017
• Subject Matter: Book Review

723402ROPXXX10.1177/0734371X17723402Review of Public Personnel AdministrationBook Review
book-review2017
Book Review
Review of Public Personnel Administration
2017, Vol. 37(3) 369 –372
Book Review
© The Author(s) 2017
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D’Agostino, M. J., & Levine, H. (2011). Women in Public Administration: Theory and Practice.
Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning. 336 pp. ISBN: 978-0763777258
Reviewed by: Rashmi Chordiya, The University of Texas at Dallas, USA
DOI:10.1177/0734371X17723402
In the book Women in Public Administration: Theory and Practice, editors Maria J.
D’Agostino and Helisse Levine provide a wide-ranging approach to the theory and
practice of public administration from a gendered perspective. This edited volume is a
collection of narratives, theoretical essays, and empirical research that informs stu-
dents, scholars, and practitioners in understanding the eclectic issues surrounding a
gendered approach to public administration. The overarching question examined by
each of the contributors is to what extent the administrative state recognizes that the
legitimacy problem of public administration extends beyond the political versus
administrative dichotomy and encompasses a gendered dimension.
The book is organized into five parts. Part I provides theoretical foundations for
women in public administration. Contributors Janet Hutchinson, Patricia Shields, and
Helisse Levine critically examine the applicability of existing feminist theories to the
theory and practice of public administration. Hutchinson argues and advises for the
need to view feminism not as separate or a merely contributing part of the general
body of public administration, but as intrinsic to public administration and its future.
Shields emphasizes that democracy exists in many forms—political, social, and eco-
nomic. She examines Jane Addams’s conceptualization of ethical social democracy
and its implications for public administration theory. According to Shields, Jane
Addams advances our understanding of Frederick Mosher’s (1968) enduring question
of “How can public service be made to operate in a manner compatible with democ-
racy?” from a feminist standpoint (p. 17). The conscious application of Addams’s
feminist ethical social democracy complements Mosher’s political democracy and...