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Women, urban governance and the public service ethos

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Abstract

This article considers gender and the public sector, examining the degree to which women make a ‘difference’ to public service. In reporting on a research project into the 30% seat reservation or quota system for local female politicians in the Indian Mega-City of Mumbai (formerly Bombay), consideration is given to the ways in which women and men manage and organise their daily lives and contribute to public governance, with particular attention given to the cultural specificities of the Indian context in the period of post-colonial rule. It is argued that women politicians and officers are held in high regard as valued and respected holders of public office, that their values and attitudes are more closely aligned to a public service ethos than men's and that their role in the processes of change affecting India at the present time may prove to be significant.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Organisation Studies Research Group, University of East London, East London Business School, Dagenham, Essex, England

    Jim Barry & Trudie Honour

  2. All India Institute of Local Self-Government, Anderi (West), Mumbai, India

    Sneha Palnitkar

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  1. Jim Barry
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  2. Trudie Honour
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  3. Sneha Palnitkar
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Barry, J., Honour, T. & Palnitkar, S. Women, urban governance and the public service ethos. Crime, Law and Social Change 29, 251–272 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008325625543

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