Careers of women public managers: Career needs of women public managers across generations

• Published date: 01 January 2023
• Author: Sebawit G. Bishu,Meghna Sabharwal,Rebecca Reyes
• Date: 01 January 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13548

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Careers of women public managers: Career needs of women

public managers across generations

Sebawit G. Bishu

1

| Meghna Sabharwal

2

| Rebecca Reyes

2

1

Evans School of Public Policy and Governance,

University of Washington, Seattle,

Washington, USA

2

School of Economic, Political & Policy Sciences,

The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson,

Texas, USA

Correspondence

Sebawit G. Bishu, Evans School of Public Policy

and Governance, University of Washington,

Seattle, WA, USA.

Email: sbishu@uw.edu

Abstract

This study examines women’s managerial experiences in leadership roles and

reflects on their career needs. Women’s career needs are understood by applying

the Kaleidoscope Career Model (KCM), which is yet to be widely explored in public

sector settings. The KCM recognizes the interplay of multiple experiences that

shape the career development of women in the workforce. Using 21 in-depth

interviews with women municipal government leaders in the United States; we

find that while all three parameters of the KCM model are relevant for women

public managers, the need for balance is overwhelmingly evident for women

across all generations. Further, we demonstrate how the relationality of women

public managers and the interplay of personal and professional needs drive their

career goals. The findings from this study are relevant to human resource develop-

ment policies and practices that consider generational differences into account.

Work-life balance needs are relevant for women across all generations (Baby

Boomer, Generation X, and Generation Y), and organizations play a vital role in

mitigating the burden for women managers. Women public managers’need for

balance dominates across generations over the need for challenge and authenticity.

Human resource management programs should consider policies and programs

that are responsive to the specific needs of women across different generations.

Women managers from Generation X and Baby Boomer generational cohorts

express interest in leaving their current position or look forward to retirement in

the future.

Evidence for practice

•Work-life balance needs are relevant for women across all generations (Baby

Boomer, Generation X and Generation Y), and organizations play a vital role for

mitigating the burden for women managers.

•Women public managers’need for balance dominates across generations over

the needs for challenge and authenticity.

•Human resource management programs should consider policies and programs

that are responsive to the specific needs of women across different generations.

•Women managers from Generation X and Baby Boomer generational cohorts

express interest in leaving their current position, or look forward to retirement in

the future.

INTRODUCTION

Women have lower representation in leadership roles across

all sectors (Alkadry & Tower, 2014), with about 34% of the

senior executive service roles in the federal government, a

similar percentage in state governments, and 15% of the

senior appointed leadership in local governments (Alkadry

et al., 2017). In the private sector, women currently represent

7.4% of the CEOs that lead Fortune 500 companies

(Hinchliffe, 2020). Taken together, these data demonstrate a

dearth of women in senior leadership roles in the workforce.

Given the unequal representation of women in leader-

ship roles across sectors, career development models

have been proposed to understand the causes of the

Received: 27 February 2021 Revised: 26 July 2022 Accepted: 31 July 2022

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13548

Public Admin Rev. 2023;83:163–180. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/puar © 2022 American Society for Public Administration. 163

stalled gender diversity in the public sector. Career devel-

opment models are useful for understanding some of the

complexities associated with individual and organiza-

tional factors that impede women’s advancement in the

workforce. One such model is the Kaleidoscope Career

Model (KCM), which is often applied in the private sector

(see Mouratidou & Grabarski, 2021 for a recent application

of KCM in the public sector setting in Greece). This model

introduces the need for challenge,balance, and authentic-

ity for women in the workforce (Mainiero & Sullivan, 2005,

2006). With the growing generational diversity in the pub-

lic sector workforce makeup and public service values

(Casey & Vogel, 2019; Dwyer, 2009; Hamidullah, 2016;

Johnson & Ng, 2016), understanding the career needs

and patterns across generations has also become para-

mount. However, existing research examining the career

development of women in public leadership roles has

failed to recognize the multifaceted, career, and personal

needs of women in managerial roles. Hence, we ask the

following questions: (a) What are the career needs of

women public managers in municipal governments?

(b) How do the women public managers’career needs

differ across generational cohorts? We argue that study-

ing generational differences in career needs can be help-

ful in (a) understanding how different facets of women’s

lives (private and professional) intersect and shape their

career needs, and (b) designing effective work policies

and career development programs that support the

needs of women leaders across the three generational

cohorts.

In the following sections, we introduce the KCM and

detail our methods. We analyze the qualitative data from

interviews with 21 women public managers across three

generations (Baby Boomer, Generation X, and Generation

Y) to identify their career needs and the generational dif-

ferences in career needs. We find that the need for chal-

lenge,balance, and authenticity (as the KCM model

articulates) is always present within a woman’s leadership

career, but their relative importance, and/or the motiva-

tions underlying them, varies for women across genera-

tional cohorts. Specifically, our findings indicate that the

pursuit of challenges that yield opportunities for career

advancement is most evident for Generation Y and Gen-

eration X public managers. However, for Baby Boomers

and for some Generation X participants, challenge is dem-

onstrated by acting as “change-makers”and supporting

others through mentorship. We also find that a majority

of women in our sample overwhelmingly expressed the

need for balance, regardless of the generational cohort.

Additionally, we find that both Baby Boomer and Genera-

tion X women managers share the need for authenticity

by choosing to move away from the “political scene”of

management and pursuing retirement or other career

“passions”outside of public leadership. We observe that

Generation Y and some Generation X managers seek

“new opportunities”for growth and career advancement.

We conclude with a larger discussion of our findings point

to (a) generational differences in the pursuit of challenge

for career advancement versus organizational-centered

needs for challenge as “change agents,”(b) regardless of

generational membership, the need for balance takes

center stage for women public managers, and (c) women

public managers’authentic self emerges in vastly differ-

ent ways including wanting to stay on the job, trading

public leadership for a new career, or planning for

retirement.

Gender and career development metaphors

Traditional metaphors that explain the dearth of women

in leadership roles fall short of depicting the multiface-

ted career drivers for women. Sullivan and Mainiero

(2008) suggest that traditional metaphors like the “glass

ceiling”or “sticky floor”singularly point to the barriers

women encounter as they climb up the career ladder. As

such, metaphors like “sticky floor,”“glass ceiling,”and

“glass cliff”are used to explain the invisible barriers that

impede women from climbing up organizational ladders,

keeping them in lower positions (Sabharwal, 2013).

Despite their utility, these metaphors place little empha-

sis on the multifaceted aspects of individuals’experi-

ences and needs that drive their career aspirations,

choices, and progression. These metaphors also fall short

in explaining individuals’experiences in the 21st cen-

tury, when individuals are increasingly mobile, worker

support systems such as flexible working arrangements

have advanced, male engagement in family caregiving

roles has improved, and career success is measured

beyond upward mobility (Baruch, 2004; Cappelli, 1999;

Sullivan & Mainiero, 2008).

In this study, we posit that a holistic framework is

essential to understand the career needs of women pub-

lic managers. Hence, we rely on the KCM, which intro-

duces the interplay of multifaceted factors that are

detrimental to women’s career development. This model

acknowledges that women’s career patterns change

depending on evolving life contexts and related needs.

Next, we introduce the KCM, which illuminates multiple

facets of women’s career needs and their implications on

women’s authentic career aspirations.

The KCM

In taking a multifaceted (as opposed to a linear) approach

to understand the career experiences of women, Mainiero

and Sullivan (2005) state that the careers of women are

“like a kaleidoscope,”where different facets of their

careers interact with each other and influence their career

experiences and development. Mainiero et al. (2008)

introduce three cornerstones of the KCM framework:

authenticity,balance, and challenge. The authors further

note the following points:

164 CAREER NEEDS OF WOMEN PUBLIC MANAGERS ACROSS GENERATIONS