Gender and public personnel administration in the New Deal civil service

This article examines how gender informed the construction of the federal government's merit-based civil service during the 1930s. Specifically, it focuses on the debate over the employment of married women in the civil service as outlined in section 213 of the Economy Act. Many women found the measure discriminatory and developed a wide variety of arguments to dispute it. Nevertheless, opponents of section 213 incorporated, rather than rejected, the notion that women and men inhabited distinct social roles. Hence, many within the civil service continued to argue that women were not well suited for most high-level, well-paying positions. As this case study suggests, more recent debates over affirmative action and worthiness with respect to job placement fail to recognize the cultural biases that have and will continue to inform the meaning of merit.