Women in the American Society for Public Administration: Another Decade of Progress But Still a Way to Go

• Published date: 01 January 2000
• Date: 01 January 2000
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/0033-3352.00063
• Author: Marilyn Rubin

Women in the American Society for Public Administration 61

Marilyn Rubin

John Jay College

Women in the American Society for Public

Administration: Another Decade of Progress

But Still a Way to Go

During ASPA's first fifty years (1939-1989), the role of women in the Society evolved from virtual

invisibility, to token representation, to major participation. In the 1990s, women's role in ASPA

continued to expand. They achieved just about full partnership with male colleagues in the

organization's governance and they increased their contributions to ASPA's efforts to support the

improvement of theory and practice in public administration through research and scholarship.

However, women have not yet achieved parity with their male colleagues in scholarly output. For

women to achieve full equality with men in ASPA, they must be better represented in contributions

to literature and knowledge in the profession.

The role of women in the American Society for Public

Administration (ASPA) has evolved dramatically during

the Society’s 60-year history, from virtual invisibility, to

token representation, to major participation. This evolu-

tion mirrors, to a large degree, changes in the economic

and political status of women in the United States during

the second half of the twentieth century, particularly in the

last 10 to 15 years. The objective of this article is to exam-

ine women’s evolving role in ASPA during the 1990s. The

analysis updates an earlier assessment by the author on

women’s status in ASPA during the Society’s first 50 years,

1939-1989 (Rubin 1990). This update shows that women

have continued to increase their proportion of member-

ship in the organization and have achieved full participa-

tion in the governance of ASPA during the 1990s. How-

ever, the update also shows that women have not yet

achieved parity with their male colleagues in scholarly

contributions to public administration.

At the time of ASPA’s founding 60 years ago, 28 per-

cent of adult women in the United States were part of the

nation’s civilian labor force. Women who were employed

outside of the home generally held jobs as clerk-typists,

secretaries, nurses, and teachers—all “helping” professions.

By 1999, the proportion of adult women in the labor force

more than doubled its 1940 level to 60 percent.

In the 1990s, women were employed not only in the

helping professions, but also in jobs previously filled only

by men, such as: police officers, astronauts, and generals

in the armed forces. Women served as presidents of public

and private universities and not-for-profit organizations and

as chief executive officers of major corporations such as

Hewlett Packard and Mattel. Even Blondie now has a ca-

reer after spending decades in her kitchen making sand-

wiches for Dagwood. And Barbie has career clothes.

In the political realm, women also made progress dur-

ing the 1990s. In 1999, women held statewide elected

executive offices across the U.S., with women filling 28

percent of available positions (CAWP 1999). This com-

pares with 7 percent in 1969 and just 13 percent as re-

cently as 1988.

Women held 65 of the 535 seats in the 106th U.S. Con-

gress (1999-2001)—nine of the 100 seats in the Senate

and 56 of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives.

This representation is obviously far below the percent-

age of the electorate composed of women (53 percent).

But female representation in the 106th Congress was more

than double that in the 100th Congress (25 women in 1987-

89) and 7 times that in the 77th Congress (10 women in

1939-41).

In spite of the economic and political progress that

women made in the 1990s, they continue to be underrep-

Marilyn Rubin is the director of the MPA program at John Jay College, City

University of New York. She is professor of public administration and econom-

ics and acts as consultant to federal, state, and local government agencies.