Bureau Men, Settlement Women Constructing Public Administration in the Progressive Era Camilla Stivers New in Paperback: September 2002 xii, 188 pages, 6 x 9 Studies in Government and Public Policy Paper ISBN 978-0-7006-1222-2, $16.95 Also available in cloth Cloth ISBN 978-0-7006-1021-1, $29.95 During the first two decades of the twentieth century in cities across America, both men and women struggled for urban reform but in distinctively different ways. Adhering to gender roles of the time, men working for independent research bureaus sought to apply scientific and business practices to corrupt city governments, while women in the settlement house movement labored to improve the lives of the urban poor by testing new services and then getting governments to adopt them. Although the two intertwined at first, the contributions of these "settlement women" to the development of the administrative state have been largely lost as the new field of public administration evolved from the research bureaus and diverged from social work. Camilla Stivers now shows how public administration came to be dominated not just by science and business but also by masculinity, calling into question much that is taken for granted about the profession and creating an alternative vision of public service. Bureau Men, Settlement Women offers a rare look at the early intellectual history of public administration and is the only book to examine the subject from a gender perspective. It recovers the forgotten contributions of women--their engagement in public life, concern about the proper aims of government, and commitment to citizenship and community--to show that they were ultimately more successful than their male counterparts in enlarging the work and moral scope of government. Stivers's study helps explain public administration's longstanding identity crisis by showing why the separation of male and female roles restricted public administration to an unnecessary instrumentalism. It also provides the most detailed examination in half a century of the New York Bureau of Municipal Research and its role in the development of twentieth-century public administration. By reconsidering the origins of the field and calling for a new sense of purpose in public service, Stivers suggests that public administrators need not rigidly emulate business practices but should instead strive to improve the ways in which they deal with people. Her well-researched critique will help students and professionals better understand their calling and challenge them to reconsider how they think about, educate for, and perform government service. “Iconoclastic and irreverent.”—Public Administration Review "This book is a major contribution to the field. Stivers has brought to light something critical and absolutely necessary for our understanding of American public administration."--David Rosenbloom, author of Public Administration "While revealing the fascinating story of the beginnings of public administration, Stivers challenges us to reconsider fundamentally how we think about, educate for, and do government service. A wonderful book, very well researched and written, original in its argument, and path-breaking in its implications."--Suzanne Mettler, author of Dividing Citizens: Gender and Federalism in New Deal Public Policy CAMILLA STIVERS is Albert A. Levin Professor of Urban Studies and Public Service at Cleveland State University. She is associate editor of Public Administration Review and author of Gender Images in Public Administration.   Home | About the Press | Recent Awards | Contact Us | Order New Books: | By Author | By Subject | By Title | By Series Books in Print: | By Author | By Subject | By Title | By Series ©2007 University Press of Kansas 2502 Westbrooke Circle, Lawrence, KS 66045-4444 Phone (785) 864-4155; Fax (785) 864-4586