Bureau Men, Settlement Women: Constructing Public Administration in the Progressive EraUniversity Press of Kansas, 2000 - 187 pages During the first two decades of the twentieth century in cities across America, both men and women struggled for urban reform but in distinctively different ways. Adhering to gender roles of the time, men working for independent research bureaus sought to apply scientific and business practices to corrupt city governments, while women in the settlement house movement labored to improve the lives of the urban poor by testing new services and then getting governments to adopt them. Although the two intertwined at first, the contributions of these "settlement women" to the development of the administrative state have been largely lost as the new field of public administration evolved from the research bureaus and diverged from social work. Camilla Stivers now shows how public administration came to be dominated not just by science and business but also by masculinity, calling into question much that is taken for granted about the profession and creating an alternative vision of public service. Bureau Men, Settlement Women offers a rare look at the early intellectual history of public administration and is the only book to examine the subject from a gender perspective. It recovers the forgotten contributions of women-their engagement in public life, concern about the proper aims of government, and commitment to citizenship and community-to show that they were ultimately more successful than their male counterparts in enlarging the work and moral scope of government. Stivers's study helps explain public administration's long-standing "identity crisis" by showing why the separation of male and female roles restricted public administration to an unnecessary instrumentalism. It also provides the most detailed examination in half a century of the New York Bureau of Municipal Research and its role in the development of twentieth-century public administration. By reconsidering the origins of the field and calling for a new sense of purpose in public service, Stivers suggests that public administrators need not rigidly emulate business practices but should instead strive to improve the ways in which they deal with people. Her well-researched critique will help students and professionals better understand their calling and challenge them to reconsider how they think about, educate for, and perform government service. |
Other editions - View all
Bureau Men, Settlement Women: Constructing Public Administration in the ... Camilla Stivers No preview available - 2000 |
Common terms and phrases
Academy of Political accounting activities agencies American Political Annals approach argued became Board bureau men bureau men's Bureau of Municipal century Chicago citizens citizenship city government civic Cleveland clubwomen Commons Edith Abbott efforts ernment experts feminine field Frederick Cleveland Gender governmental Henry Bruere Hull House Ibid idea improving interest investigation IPA Archives ipal Jane Addams John Purroy Mitchel Jonathan Kahn Julia Lathrop knowledge male masculine mayor ment methods municipal government municipal reform municipal research bureaus National Municipal Review neighborhood organization Pittsburgh Survey Political and Social practice problems processes professional Progressive Progressive Era public admin public administration's public administrationists public management public service question Reinventing Rockefeller role scientific management settlement houses settlement movement settlement residents Simkhovitch Social Science 41 Social Service Review social workers society Sophonisba Breckinridge Survey Tammany tion University Press urban Waldo women's clubs York Bureau York City