ABSTRACT
Historical and contemporary patterns of recruiting women into the management of the local public sector generally parallel the patterns of blacks and members of other minority groups. The advances in the recruitment of women can be attributed in part to the passage of the 1972 Equal Employment Opportunity Act and its primary instrument of implementation, affirmative action. Since the 1972 enactment, affirmative action has been the primary mechanism for the development of a representative bureaucracy at the local level. The federal government and professional organizations, such as the International City Management Association, have assisted municipalities in their efforts to implement affirmative action. By providing funding for scholarships, the federal government has attempted to increase the pool of qualified affirmative action candidates for public management positions. City manager support for the use of affirmative action in the recruitment of women is the dependent variable in this research.
