P21 Female Leadership in Public Bureaucracies: Barriers, Trajectories, and Transformative potential

Panel Members & Contact Details
 

Michelle Fernandez, University of Brasília, Professor of Political Science. Email: michelle.vfernandez@gmail.com

Fernando Nieto Morales, El Colégio de México, Professor of Public Administration. Email: fnieto@colmex.mx

Summary

This panel examines the rise of female leadership in public bureaucracies, highlighting both its transformative potential and the persistent structural, cultural, and political barriers women face. It invites empirical research on the drivers, challenges, and impacts of women’s leadership across diverse national and institutional contexts, with a focus on intersectional inequalities and Global South experiences. The panel aims to inform more equitable public sector reforms by exploring how gender-diverse leadership can reshape organizational cultures, governance practices, and policy outcomes.

Description

Female leadership in bureaucracies has gained increasing ascension in recent decades, both as a subject of academic inquiry and as a key element within broader political and institutional agendas aimed at promo-ng gender equality. This growing interest reflects not only the need to better understand the persistent structural barriers that hinder women's access to positions of power but also the recognition of the transformative impact that gender-diverse leadership can have on organizational cultures, decision-making processes, and public policy outcomes.

Research across various national contexts has demonstrated that women’s presence in senior administrative roles is often associated with changes in institutional priorities, increased responsiveness to social demands, and greater emphasis on issues related to equity, health, education, and care work. Moreover, female leadership can contribute to more inclusive and participatory forms of governance, particularly when institutional environments allow for autonomy and professional agency.

However, women’s advancement in bureaucracies is shaped by complex and often contradictory dynamics. While formal mechanisms, such as affirmative action policies, gender quotas, merit-based recruitment systems, and equal opportunity frameworks, have expanded pathways into public service leadership, these institutional gains often coexist with informal norms and practices that perpetuate gendered hierarchies. Patronage networks, political cooperation, implicit biases in selection and promotion processes, and the undervaluation of women’s leadership styles all function as barriers to achieving substantive gender parity in senior roles.

In many bureaucratic contexts—especially in Latin America, Africa, and parts of Asia— female administrators must also navigate sociocultural expectations around caregiving, professional demeanour, and political loyalty. These expectations often result in unequal demands and higher performance thresholds for women, particularly in male-dominated  sectors such as infrastructure, finance, and security and defence. Furthermore, the  intersection of gender with race, class, and regional disparities further compounds the obstacles faced by women, especially those from marginalized backgrounds.

Understanding the institutional, political, and cultural dimensions of female leadership is, therefore, essential not only for diagnosing the persistence of gender asymmetries in public administration but also for informing the design of more effective and equitable public sector reforms. Encouraging diversity in leadership requires more than representational parity; it demands structural changes that challenge androcentric organizational norms, redefine leadership models, and institutionalize accountability mechanisms to promote equity at all levels of bureaucracy.

This panel invites empirical contributions that explore female leadership in public bureaucracies across different national, cultural, and institutional contexts. We welcome papers that examine the drivers and obstacles to women’s access to leadership positions, the organizational, political, and cultural factors that shape their trajectories, and the impacts of their leadership on public sector performance and policy outcomes. Comparative  perspectives, longitudinal analyses, intersectional approaches, and studies focusing on  Global South experiences are particularly encouraged. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Gendered patterns of recruitment, promo-on, and appointment
• Institutional reforms aimed at fostering gender parity in public leadership
• Informal networks, mentorship, and the role of social capital in career advancement
• Experiences of discrimination, resistance, and agency in bureaucratic settings
• The impact of female leadership on public service delivery and policy
• Intersectional inequalities in administrative careers
• The effects of female leadership on public sector organizational culture and accountability   

Relevance

Even when women do undertake leadership positions, their experiences are often conditioned by persistent gendered dynamics in the workplace. These may manifest as unequal performance evaluations, limited access to support networks, “glass ceilings” that impede upward mobility, “sticky floors” that prevent departure from low-ranking positions, and experiences of harassment or institutionalized gender-based violence. Such conditions not only curtail the full expression of female leadership but also reveal the fragility or insufficiency of gender equity frameworks within many public institutions. Nonetheless, existing research shows that women in leadership roles can have a substantive impact on bureaucratic cultures, decision-making processes, and public service delivery. Their presence has been linked to greater responsiveness to social issues, broader stakeholder inclusion, and increased access to services for historically marginalized populations. Importantly, female leadership in bureaucracy should not be viewed solely as a matter of descriptive representation. It must also be understood as a lever for institutional transformation and improved governance. In this sense, fostering women’s leadership contributes to building more inclusive, democratic, and responsive state institutions, particularly when examined through intersectional lenses that account for race, ethnicity, class, disability, and other axes of inequality.