Representative bureaucracy, tokenism and the glass ceiling: the case of women in Quebec municipal administration

Article Abstract:

There is an assumption running through the literature on women and politics that the local level has particular relevance for women. After all, this level of government provides many of the services that relate most directly to women's everyday lives and well-being. Theories of representative bureaucracy assume that responsiveness to women's needs and concerns will be enhanced to the extent that the bureaucracy is representative of women. It is worth asking, then, how representative local government bureaucracies actually are. Our analysis is based on data drawn from all 259 of Quebec's urban municipalities, between the period of 1985 and 1995. Over the past decade, the number of women heading municipal departments in Quebec's cities has more than doubled. It is hard to avoid the conclusion, however, that the glass ceiling is still very much in place. Close to forty per cent of cities do not even have one department headed by a woman, and a further thirty per cent of cities have only one department headed by a woman. Much of the growth that has occurred appears to be token growth. All too often the appointment of one women to head a department fails to open the way for similar appointments for other women. And city administrations that do not have departments headed by a woman continue to outnumber those with more than one woman department-head. Moreover, women are most likely to have advanced beyond a token presence in those cities where the top municipal jobs are the least desirable. Agency stereotyping helps perpetuate the glass ceiling. Much of women's advance has occurred in stereotypically "female" functions. The stereotypically "male" departments remain overwhelmingly the preserves of men. There is no support for the supply or socialization theses as alternative explanations for these findings. Finally, the glass ceiling seems to be stubbornly resistant to government actions to dislodge it. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Research, Local government, Quebec, Employment discrimination, Women in politics, Municipal officials and employees, Municipal employees, Municipal officials

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Big is different from little: on taking size seriously in the analysis of Canadian governmental institutions

Article Abstract:

An institution's size is one of its most obvious and important feature. This paper suggests that although analysts and practitioners are certainly aware that scale does matter, the consequences of size for comparative analysis of Canadian governmental institutions have been seriously under-appreciated. To be sure, size is one of a host of factors shaping our political institutions, but this should not discount its importance, which is both pronounced and widespread. The paper also raises the question of whether the great variations in size evident in Canada's governmental institutions - legislatures, cabinets, and bureaucracies - may not amount to differences in kind rather than degree. In short, the size of our governmental institutions matters, and it matters more than we usually imagine. Size may be relative or absolute. In this paper both dimensions are important. Both the ratio of the cabinet to the legislature and the number of elected members relative to the population have significant implications. So too, the absolute size of the cabinet and the number of bureaucrats are of substantial consequence. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Canada, Bureaucracy, Public institutions

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