Representative bureaucracy: a typology of normative institutional strategies for the representation of women

Abstract

In public service institutions occupational gender segregation persists. These institutions are often gendered with predominantly masculine organisational cultures. The lack of passive and active representation of women has implications for public policy outcomes. This paper suggests a normative typology of the passive and active representation of women in bureaucracies, vis-à-vis institutional strategies to address the under-representation of women. The typology is based on: a theoretical discussion of representative bureaucracy; and a critical discussion of strategies to improve the representation of women. A key feature of the paper is the development of a typology with a suggested concinnity of institutional strategies.