A Tale of Two Journals: Women’s Representation in Public Administration Scholarship

Scholars’ influence on their institutions: Reputation, prestige, and rankings

“…First, this study utilized older data from 2006–2010, and as scholars continue to publish and institutions continue to entice top scholars from other institutions, some of the rankings will undoubtedly have changed. While, an obvious delimitation of this study is the use of dated data there are several advantages to using this data range: (a) the comparisons of individual authors’ scholarship is made against an already peer-reviewed and cited institutional ranking for the same time period (Williams, et al 2014) (see also: Ash and Urquiola, 2018; Charbonneau, et al 2018; Frederickson, and Stazyk, 2016; Knepper, et al 2019; Lashman, 2017; Morçöl and Han, 2018; and Scutelnicu and Knepper, 2019) which arguably adds to the justifiability of the comparative institutional schema; (b) research-based rankings based upon Impact-Factor scores have a natural time delay in measurement; (c) the dated nature of the study may provide for less contentious findings; and (d) the phenomenon tested, the impact of scholars on their institutions in research-based rankings, is not immune to time lapses, but it is not as time-sensitive as a typical ranking. In fact, some scholars on this list moved institutions, there has been an addition of new “ranked” journals from JCR, and the ascension of new top-scholars (and the attrition or retirement of previous top-scholars) since the dates for data collection and reflections on those movements could prove useful to expanding the significance of this study.…”

Building inclusive PA classrooms: The Diversity Inclusion Model

“…Ultimately, this inequitable exclusion of female authors is bolstered by circular patterns—professors assign readings they encountered as students, thus reinforcing the exclusive public administration canon (Coryat and Clemens, 2017; Rice, 2010). This lack of inclusion could also be influenced by a trend noted in studies showing that journal publications show disproportionate numbers of male authors (Corley and Sabharwal, 2010; Knepper et al, 2020; Sabharwal, 2013; Scutelnicu and Knepper, 2018). Could the dearth of women’s representation in the classroom be the result of a lack of awareness, stemming from findings that 5% of public administration courses include gender diversity units and 20% of required readings are women’s scholarship (Hatch, 2018)?…”

“…There has been limited empirical research examining students’ interpretation and awareness of the gender or diversity of authors for assigned reading materials, the recent attention on demographics of authors (Corley and Sabharwal, 2010; Scutelnicu and Knepper, 2018), journal editors (Feeney et al, 2019), textbook content (Atchison, 2017), and syllabus diversification and “decolonizing” efforts (Dechavez, 2018). However, all have promoted their work through Twitter feeds by the aforementioned Women Also Know Stuff and Academic Women in Public Administration (2020), suggesting that this is an emerging concern, at least within academia, and an area for future research.…”

“…However, women comprise only 35.4% of federal senior executive positions (US Office of Personnel Management, 2017), and 43% of nonprofit board membership or 24% of chief executive positions of large nonprofits (Shankie, 2015). Meanwhile, only 34–36% of faculty in public administration programs are women (Feeney et al, 2019; National Science Foundation, 2015; Primo, 2013; Scutelnicu and Knepper, 2018). This is despite women making up nearly 79% of students enrolling in public administration graduate programs (Okahana and Zhou, 2017), up 2% over the 2013 graduate enrollment report (Gonzales et al, 2013), and about half of all public administration doctoral degrees being earned by women (National Science Foundation, 2019).…”

The Slippery Slope: Struggling for Equity in the Academy in the Era of #MeToo

“…Women in public administration strive for more equitable representation in the academy, but recent studies reveal that women remain underrepresented in the field and in its scholarship (Feeney, Carson, and Dickinson 2019; Ni, Sugimoto and Robbin 2017; Sabharwal 2011, 2013; Scutelnicu and Knepper 2019). Such underrepresentation is partially explained by the high sexual harassment rate in the academy, 58 percent—the second‐highest rate of sexual harassment after the military (Ilies et al 2003).…”