Public Agencies, Gendered Organizations: The future of gender studies in public management

Studying gendered norms, practices, and processes represents the future of research on gender in public management, not tracking numbers over time. Gendered norms are rules governing behaviour that are institutionalized in organizational practices and processes, and are produced and reproduced through repeated interpersonal interactions. Theories of gendered norms have been developed in sociology, but it must be public administrationists who refine them for public-sector organizations, because the government context is unique, and equity is the third pillar upon which public administration rests. We conclude with a discussion of research projects taking a gendered-organizations approach and propose topics for further inquiry.