Power in Editorial Positions: A Feminist Critique of Public Administration

• Author: Mary K. Feeney,Helen Dickinson,Lisa Carson
• Published date: 01 January 2019
• Date: 01 January 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12950

46

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 79, Iss. 1, pp. 46–55. © 2018 The

Authors. Public Administration Review

published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on

behalf of American Society for Public

Administration. DOI: 10.1111/puar.12950.

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

and is not used for commercial purposes.

Mary K. Feeney

Arizona State University

Lisa Carson

Helen Dickinson

University of New South Wales, Canberra

Power in Editorial Positions: A Feminist Critique of

Public Administration

Abstract: Journal editors serve a vital, powerful role in academic fields. They set research priorities, serve as

gatekeepers for research, play a critical role in advancing junior scholars as reviewers and eventually into editorial

roles, build extensive networks, and gain valuable insight into the behavior and preferences of reviewers and scholars.

This article analyzes data collected from leading public administration journals in 2017 to investigate the role of

women as gatekeepers of public administration knowledge. The data illustrate a clear underrepresentation of women

on editorial boards. Drawing from these data, research on journal editorships, and feminist theory, the authors present

a critique of the current state of public administration research and a discussion of a way forward. They conclude

with a proposal for how all public administration scholars (junior, senior, men, and women), journal leadership, and

academic departments can move toward increasing women’s representation in these important positions.

Evidence for Practice

• Of the top 24 public administration journals, six have women editors, six have no women in

editorial leadership positions, and six have only one woman in an editorial leadership position. The

underrepresentation of women in public administration journals is structural and thus changeable.

• Women are overrepresented in lower-status positions such as book review editors and underrepresented in

editorships.

• Journals can use transparency policies when selecting editors, building editorial boards, and thanking

reviewers to reduce gender bias and increase balanced representation.

• Gender equity in academic journal editorships relies on personal, interpersonal, and structural strategies that

include encouraging women candidates, ensuring departmental support, and developing transparent journal

management and selection processes.

Academic journals play a crucial role in both the

creation of knowledge within scientific fields

and the career advancement of individuals.

Journal editors and editorial boards therefore play

important roles as gatekeepers of knowledge within

fields and the academic marketplace more broadly.

Although we have seen reports of increased gender

equality in academic journal editorial boards (e.g.,

Addis and Villa 2003; Metz and Harzing 2012; Metz,

Harzing, and Zyphur 2016), these increases have not

kept pace with the proportion of female scholars in

various fields. In fact, “there is still substantial variability

in women’s level of representation on EBs [editorial

boards] across journals in the same field of study”

(Metz, Harzing, and Zyphur 2016, 712). This lack of

female representation in editorial roles is important

because evidence suggests that a lack of diversity can

lead to a focus on particular topics or theories (Burgess

and Shaw 2010), inhibit knowledge creation (Konrad

2008), create gender bias in reviewer selection (Lerbac

and Hanson 2017), and indicate to women that

submissions are not welcome (Feldman 2008), thus

exacerbating existing inequitable representation.

In the context of public administration (PA), women

are increasingly moving up the ranks of the field in

terms of faculty positions. Yet women remain half as

likely as men to hold leadership roles in departments,

making up about 33 percent of department heads and

chairs (Sabharwal 2013, 85). Numerous rationales

have been put forward in support of increasing

representation of women in leadership positions in

PA, all of which typically stress that attaining greater

diversity should improve the overall performance of

the field (see Oldfield, Candler, and Johnson 2006;

Sabharwal 2013). In this article, we explore the degree

to which equal representation of men and women

exists in journal leadership. We draw on data from 24

of the top PA journals and explore the proportion of

women in editor in chief roles, leadership teams, book

review editors, and editorial boards. We find that

women are significantly underrepresented in editor,

Helen Dickinson is associate professor

of public service research and director

of the Public Service Research Group in

the School of Business, University of New

South Wales, Canberra. Her expertise is

in public services, particularly in relation

to topics such as governance, disability,

primary health, and models of stewardship.

Helen has published 16 books and more

than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles on

these topics. Further detail can be found at

https://helendickinson.wordpress.com.

E-mail: h.dickinson@adfa.edu.au

Lisa Carson is a postdoctoral fellow in

the Public Service Research Group in the

School of Business, University of New South

Wales, Canberra. Her research focuses

on the complexities of translating policy

into practice at the local, national, and

international levels and crosses boundaries

of policy analysis, feminist studies,

political science, international relations,

institutionalist theory, and sociology. She

has published in the Australian Journal

of International Affairs and the

Australian Feminist Law Journal.

E-mail: lisa.carson@unsw.edu.au

Mary K. Feeney is associate professor

and Lincoln Professor of Ethics in Public

Affairs and associate director of the Center

for Science, Technology and Environmental

Policy Studies at Arizona State University.

Her research focuses on public

management, nonprofit management, and

technology use in local government. She

is a founding member of the Academic

Women in Public Administration network.

You can find her research and projects at

http://mkfeeney.weebly.com.

E-mail: mkfeeney@asu.edu

Research Article