Women’s History Month gives us time to reflect on the extensive contributions of women to the history of the United States – contributions that I certainly did not learn about in my first 12 years of school other than those of a scant few such as Betsy Ross, Abigail Adams, and Eleanor Roosevelt. No Sojourner Truth! No Frances Perkins! No Margaret Chase Smith! It was as if history was indeed “his”tory”!!
But, Women’s History Month did not originate as a time to reflect on women’s contributions to history. It originated in New York City on February 28, 1909 as International Women’s Day in commemoration of the one-year anniversary of the City’s garment industry strike. The strike, led by the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union, was held to protest the abominable working conditions and low wages being paid to the predominantly female immigrant workforce in the City’s garment factories. The following year, the Socialist Party of America declared the first National Woman's Day.
In 1910, the 100 women attending the International Conference of Working Women held in Copenhagen agreed unanimously to make the day international, but with no fixed date. The March 8th day, celebrated today for the international celebration of women, commemorates the beginning of the strike by Russian women in 1917 demanding "bread and peace.” This strike began on the Julian calendar, then used in Russia, on February 23rd. This day in the Gregorian calendar is March 8th. The UN made the March date official in 1975. Interestingly, the women’s strike is often seen as sparking the Russian Revolution.
In 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued the first Presidential Proclamation declaring Women’s History Week to align with International Women’s Day. A joint resolution of Congress established Women’s History Week as in commemoration of women’s contributions to US history; a subsequent congressional action turned the week into a month-long commemoration. Since 1995, all US presidents have issued proclamations declaring March to be Women’s History Month. As stated on the official website of Women’s History Month, “These proclamations celebrate the contributions women have made to the United States and recognize the specific achievements women have made over the course of American history in a variety of fields.” One of these fields is Public Administration.
Women in Public Administration
While Public Administration has traditionally been a male-dominated field, viewing its history through a gendered lens reveals that women have made substantial, often unheralded, contributions both as academics and practitioners. Looking at individual women such as Laverne Burchfield through this lens gives us an appreciation of the role individual women have played in the development of the field. Burchfield was managing editor of Public Administration Review from 1943 until 1958 and was, as Mary Guy writes, “…a woman passionately committed to the world of public service.” Other scholars, such as Camilla Stivers, have widened the lens to let us see how women have collectively shaped the identity of Public Administration.
While there are numerous women who have enhanced the field. I focus here on Nesta Gallas, who, I am proud to say, was my mentor and inspiration and who, in fact, nominated me to be a NAPA fellow. Nesta was the first female president of ASPA and the first female Associate Dean for Graduate Studies at John Jay College where she was also Professor and Chair, Department of Government, History and Economics in which Public Administration was housed. Nesta held several other positions in the field such as Adviser, Division of Public Administration, U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs and Personnel Director, City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii, Department of Civil Service. She was a renowned fellow of NAPA and was involved with several other public affairs organizations including NASPAA.
Nesta was closely associated with the affiliation of the Conference on Minority Public Administrators (COMPA) in ASPA, and played an integral role in the Association's development of its ethics code. Nesta received an award from ASPA for outstanding achievement in advancing the practice of public administration. But, similar to other women who have achieved stardom in our field, Nesta’s successful career was punctuated by several challenges. For example, she was fired as Honolulu’s Personnel Director for standing up against corruption and for supporting professional expertise under responsible public law—uplifting public-service standards nationally.
Going full circle, in 2014, ASPA established the Nesta M. Gallas Award for Exemplary Professionalism in the Public Service to be given in recognition of careers characterized by efforts to uphold legal and ethical standards and to advance gender equity. I think that a sentence in the announcement of the award says it all. Nesta was "a consummate professional and path breaker," and she did all of this while raising four children during a time when popular culture and the mass media reinforced messages about traditional gender roles. Her passing in 2012 left a huge hole for me and for all of us in Public Administration.
Having Lunch with Eleanor Roosevelt
One of the questions I was asked to address is what woman, dead or alive, I would choose to have dinner with and what would I want to talk about. I could have selected a myriad of women to break bread with including those that I have mentioned in this essay – Nesta Gallas, Mary Guy and Camilla Stivers. But, upon reflection, I decided that my dinner companion would be Eleanor Roosevelt. In addition to the traditional role as hostess for the President, Eleanor Roosevelt used her position to influence her husband’s decisions – a role that was not always praised but that set the stage for the active participation of future president’s wives. Eleanor Roosevelt remained active in human rights after her husband’s death and, in 1960, chaired President Kennedy’s Commission on the Status of Women that issued a ground-breaking study about gender discrimination.
As chairperson of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, Mrs. Roosevelt played an instrumental role in drafting the 1948 UN Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). While not a legally binding document, the UDHR provides a way to measure the commitments to human rights, including women’s rights, of UN member nations. Many of the rights enshrined in the UDHR are reflected in subsequent human rights instruments and treaties ratified by UN Member States, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) adopted in 1979. In its preamble, CEDAW explicitly acknowledges that "extensive discrimination against women continues to exist", and emphasizes that such discrimination "violates the principles of equality of rights and respect for human dignity."
When she was working on the UDHR, there was tremendous controversy as to what it should say. She somehow managed to bring divergent interests together to agree on its content. Today I would want to talk with her about her thoughts on the divisive state of the US and the world. and the breakdown of the rule of law. I would also like to talk with her about the failure of the United States to ratify CEDAW – one of only a handful of nations along with Iran that has failed to do so!!
Women’s Issues
While women have made, and continue to make, significant contributions to Public Administration and to society, Women’s History Month should not be seen as simply a celebration of these contributions, but also as an opportunity to bring awareness to the challenges women continue to face in the U.S. and worldwide. In the context of Public Administration, to me the biggest challenge is how women can fortify democracy here and throughout the world. Women must actively participate in government and politics in order to advance human rights. As Kamala Harris, the first women to hold the title of Vice President of the US so eloquently puts it, “The status of democracy depends fundamentally on the empowerment of women,” not only because the exclusion of women in decision-making is a marker of a flawed democracy, but because the participation of women strengthens democracy.”
Marilyn Rubin is a Distinguished Research Fellow at Rutgers School of Public Affairs and Administration (SPAA) and is an affiliated faculty member of the Rutgers School of Law Center on Law, Inequality and Metropolitan Equity. Marilyn previously spent 30 years as Professor of Public Administration and Economics at John Jay College, the City University of New York (CUNY), where she was Director of the MPA Program. She has more than 35 years of experience working as a consultant and advisor to high-level government officials in the U.S. and abroad on projects related to economic development, fiscal policy, gender budgeting, and strategic planning. She has sat on economic advisory boards to elected and appointed officials at the U.S. federal, state and local levels of government and is a former Chairperson of The Association for Budgeting and Financial Management of ASPA. She has been a member of editorial boards of Public Administration Review and Public Budgeting and Finance and is currently on the editorial board of the Journal of Social Equity and Public Administration. She has edited/authored books, book chapters and articles in professional journals including the Public Administration Review and Public Budgeting and Finance and was a member of the NASPAA Executive Council. She has been a visiting professor at several universities outside the U.S. including Xiamen University, Xiamen, China and Jiangxi University, Nanchang, China and is a Fulbright Specialist Advisor.