WOMEN’S FRUSTRATION WITH AND INFLUENCE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT MANAGEMENT IN THE UK: AN INVESTIGATION FROM A WOMAN MANAGER’S PERSPECTIVE Available to Purchase

Looks at the frustrations of women managers within local government management in the UK over a period from 1989 to 1992. Forty women managers were intensively interviewed, and they unanimously agreed that gender relations at work affected not only them personally but also their work. The majority said that the gendered institutions and culture of their authorities encouraged a lack of planning and attention to detail, a lack of responsibility and a tendency to compete and blame colleagues. They perceived this as being damaging to services and staff. In the past this culture has rendered many women managers ineffectual and demoralized. However, by 1992 many more women had reached senior positions in local government and were beginning to transform their organizations by dismantling formal management structures and restructuring towards more open forms of management and shared values. All the women interviewed are aged between 35 and 50 and worked in Northern metropolitan authorities.