Hiding in plain sight: recovering public administration’s lost legacy of social justice

Abstract

Following Camilla Stivers’ historical account in Bureau Men/Settlement Women, this paper traces social equity within public administration to the Progressive Era and specifically to the New Deal when it became an explicit federal government commitment across policies, programs, and administration. By taking an approach focused on gender, the paper makes visible a “network” of progressive women administrators, including Jane Addams, Florence Kelley, Frances Perkins, Josephine Roche, and Mary McCleod Bethune, all of whom were dedicated to social justice as a core administrative value. The aim of laying out this broader and deeper historical context for public administration is to encourage contemporary public administration scholars to draw upon this context in their own teaching and inquiry.

Keywords:

• Social justice
• women’s reform networks
• New Deal
• Progressive Era

Notes

1 Both social equity and social justice are used in this paper. Social equity is used when the value is discussed after Minnowbrook I and social justice is used when the value is discussed in the context of the Progressive Era and New Deal periods when it was the preferred term.

2 Johnson and Svara (2011b) offer this definition of social equity: “Social equity is the active commitment to fairness, justice, and equality in the formulation of public policy, distribution of public services, implementation of public policy, and management of all institutions serving the public directly or by contract. Public administrators, including all persons involved in public governance, should seek to prevent and reduce inequality, unfairness, and injustice based on significant social characteristics and to promote greater equality in access to services, procedural fairness, quality of services, and social outcomes. Public administration should empower the participation of all persons in the political process and support the exercise of constructive personal choice” (p. 282).

3 For a different view on settlement women and bureau men see “Settlement Women and Bureau Men: Did They Share a Usable Past?” and “Women, Progressive-Era Reform, and Scientific Management” (Schachter, 1997, 2002).

4 Ware (1981) identifies New York City as another important reform network. Perkins and Eleanor Roosevelt were active members, as were Lillian Wald and Harry Hopkins.

5 The NYA supported part-time work for high school, college, and graduate students who would otherwise have to leave school because they lacked money, and funded “job training for out-of-school youth between the ages of 16-25” (Muncy, 2015, p. 171).

6 Bethune was the sole African American at this meeting. Fearful that she would be alone during lunch, Sara Roosevelt, Eleanor’s mother-in-law, made sure Bethune sat with her. The two women became friends and Sara then introduced her to Eleanor (Hanson, 2003, p. 120). In the mid-1930s, Eleanor visited Bethune’s school and stayed at her home, the latter of which received national media attention (McCluskey, 1994, p. 79). Hanson (2003) discusses numerous times when Eleanor actively championed Bethune’s work at the NYA, including a major conference for National Negro Youth Week in 1937. The event was at the Labor Department, and multiple cabinet members, agency heads, and Eleanor agreed to be speakers. The president sent a personal message to be read at the conference (Hanson, 2003, p. 157).

7 See Ira Katznelson (2013) for an in depth examination of how southern political forces slowed and weakened the New Deal’s efforts to achieve social and racial justice. For additional reading on African-Americans and the New Deal see A New Deal for Blacks: The Emergence of Civil Rights as a National Issue (Sitkoff, 1978) and Days of Hope: Race and Democracy in the New Deal Era (Sullivan, 1996).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

DeLysa Burnier

DeLysa Burnier is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Ohio University, where she teaches public policy and American politics. Her research interests include gender and care in public administration and interpretive and narrative policy analysis.