Changing the Narrative

• Author: Maria J. D’Agostino
• Published date: 01 January 2017
• Date: 01 January 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0095399716641986
• Subject Matter: Articles

Administration & Society

2017, Vol. 49(1) 9 –19

© The Author(s) 2016

DOI: 10.1177/0095399716641986

journals.sagepub.com/home/aas

Article

Changing the Narrative:

The Difference

Women Make in Public

Administration

Maria J. D’Agostino1

Abstract

The dominant narrative about women’s progress in public administration

focuses on identifying the obstacles to that progress and how to overcome

them. But to make real progress toward gender equality and social justice,

we must rethink our entire approach to research. Understanding the

difference women make via narrative inquiry is a necessary change to the

prevailing dialectic.

Keywords

gender, narrative inquiry, women in public administration

Introduction

In November 2014, a record 84 women were elected to the House of

Representatives, becoming nearly 20% of its 435 members. Across Capitol

Hill, women filled 20 of the Senate’s 100 seats when the 114th Congress

convened the following January. Just 20 years ago, there were only half as

many women in the United States’s legislative branch (Pew Research Center,

2015).

1City University of New York, New York City, USA

Corresponding Author:

Maria J. D’Agostino, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, 445 West 59th Street,

NewYork, NY 1009, USA.

Email: mdagostino@jjay.cuny.edu

641986AASXXX10.1177/0095399716641986Administration & SocietyD’Agostino

research-article2016