P36 Women's leadership in public bureaucracies

Panel Chairs

Corresponding and review group chair

• Michelle Fernandez, Professor, Institute of Political Science - Universidade de Brasília, Brazil michelle.vfernandez@gmail.com

Co-Chairs

• Fernando Nieto-Morales, Professor, El Colegio de México, Mexico 
• Cibele Franzese, Professor, Fundação Getulio Vargas, Brazil

Description of the panel theme and sub-topics

Female leadership in public bureaucracies has gained increasing attention as both a subject of academic inquiry and a key dimension of broader political and institutional agendas aimed at promoting gender equality. Yet women remain underrepresented in senior administrative positions, and their access to and experiences in leadership continue to be shaped by structural, institutional, political, and cultural barriers. Understanding these dynamics is important not only for explaining persistent gender inequalities in public organizations but also for examining how more diverse leadership may transform bureaucratic cultures, decision-making processes, public service delivery, and policy outcomes. Formal mechanisms such as affirmative action, gender quotas, merit-based recruitment, and diversity, equity, and inclusion frameworks have expanded opportunities for women within public bureaucracies. However, these institutional advances often coexist with informal practices that reproduce gendered hierarchies, including patronage networks, political co-optation, implicit biases in recruitment and promotion, unequal access to professional networks and mentorship, and the undervaluation of women’s leadership. Women may also encounter higher performance expectations, “glass ceilings,” “sticky floors,” harassment, and gender-based violence. These barriers can be particularly pronounced in traditionally male-dominated policy sectors and leadership environments. Such experiences are also shaped by the intersection of gender with race, ethnicity, class, disability, and other dimensions of inequality. Comparative and intersectional approaches are therefore essential for understanding variation across bureaucracies, policy sectors, institutional settings, and national contexts. Particular attention should be given to experiences in the Global South, where women’s leadership trajectories may be shaped by distinctive combinations of formal institutions, informal practices, political dynamics, and sociocultural expectations. At the same time, female leadership has the potential to generate substantive organizational and policy effects. Existing research associates women’s presence in leadership with greater responsiveness to social demands, broader stakeholder inclusion, attention to equity, and changes in organizational cultures and public service delivery. These contributions may become especially relevant in periods of crisis and when public organizations confront complex and multidimensional policy challenges requiring collaboration, adaptability, and inclusive decision-making. Female leadership should therefore be examined not only through the lens of descriptive representation but also as a potential mechanism for institutional transformation, democratic governance, and organizational resilience.

The panel welcomes contributions addressing, but not limited to, the following sub-topics:

• Gendered patterns of recruitment, promotion, appointment, and career progression in public bureaucracies;
• Comparative studies of gender parity, including its institutional preconditions and organizational or policy effects;
• Informal networks, mentorship, sponsorship, and social capital in women’s leadership trajectories;
• Discrimination, harassment, resistance, agency, and strategies adopted by women navigating bureaucratic leadership;
• The impact of female leadership on public service delivery, decision-making, policy design, and policy outcomes;
• Female leadership in male-dominated policy sectors and organizational environments;
• The effects of female leadership on organizational culture, accountability, inclusion, and institutional change;
• Women’s leadership during crises, uncertainty, and complex policy challenges;
• Institutional policies and organizational strategies designed to promote and sustain women’s access to leadership.

Description of the type of abstracts solicited

The panel invites empirical contributions examining women’s leadership in public bureaucracies across different countries, levels of government, policy sectors, and institutional settings. We particularly encourage papers that move beyond documenting women’s numerical representation to investigate the barriers, trajectories, experiences, agency, and transformative potential associated with women’s presence in leadership positions. We welcome qualitative and quantitative research, mixed-method studies, comparative analyses, and theoretically informed case studies. Papers may examine both the factors that enable or constrain women’s access to and permanence in leadership and the consequences of female leadership for bureaucratic organizations, public management, policy processes, and public service delivery. Comparative, intersectional, and Global South perspectives are particularly encouraged, as are studies that connect individual leadership trajectories to broader organizational, institutional, and political dynamics. Overall, the panel seeks contributions that advance our understanding of female leadership not only as a matter of representation and gender equality, but also as a central question for public management, institutional transformation, democratic governance, and the capacity of public organizations to respond to contemporary challenges.