Women, Research, and Mentorship in Public Administration

What is the role played by women in public administration research? Analysis of research-based articles in all issues of Public Administration Review (PAR) during its first 56 years (1940-1995) indicate that articles written by women follow three distinct patterns. First, women tend to co-author with members of their own sex far less than men co-author with other men. Second, the annual rate of publication by women is traditionally far less than for men. A third pattern, that of women contributing much more to the research effort, appears to be emerging in the 1990s. The new pattern might be related to the increasing mentorship capacity of women with senior rank in public administration.