ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the history of Western thinking about women in the public sphere, concentrating on the United States, and explores the connections between attitudes about women’s supposed fitness for public life and their actual participation in the public sphere. The chapter emphasizes the challenges faced by women in their efforts to attain political equality with men and highlights how gender has shaped the evolution of women’s participation in public administration. It describes how women’s involvement in public service remains paradoxical, because of theory-practice contradictions yet to be resolved.
