Black and Female Municipal Employment: A Substantive Benefit of Minority Political Incorporation?

Abstract

Research has advanced the expectation that black political mobilization will result not only in gains in black descriptive representation but also change in public policy. Under the premise that city employment is a substantive benefit, this article documents the relationships between mayoral leadership, minority descriptive representation on the city council, and trends in black and female municipal employment across eight job categories in New Orleans, Louisiana rom 1978 through 1997. It is hypothesized that with growing minority political incorporation there will occur a distinct and identifiable temporal sequence in minority city employment gains across several job categories dependent upon the relative desirability of those jobs. Over the period studied the following is found: (1) patterns of racial job stratification based on job desirability, (2) distinct trends in black male and black female employment, (3) male-female differences in traditional gender-specific occupations, and (4) bifurcation of black female and non-black female employment trends in gender-specific occupations. Although black political incorporation was in its ascendancy through the 1980s and public policy has been substantially controlled by the black leadership for more than a decade, the realization of substantive benefits in the form of municipal jobs has been much slower than previously theorized.