What do you think?
Rate this book
The feminist case against bureaucracy
Like it or not, all of us who live in modern society are organization men and women. We tend to be caught in the traditional patterns of dominance and subordination. This book is both pessimistic and hopeful. With devastating thoroughness, the author shows how pervasive these patterns of relationship are in our work lives and personal lives, and how deep they run into the very language of the organization and of ordinary life. This is not a book about how women can succeed in business, but a criticism of books like those success manuals and notions like that idea of success. The author sees bureaucrats and clients as the 'second sex'. To fit in properly, they just learn the skills necessary to cope with subordinate status, skills that women have always learned as part of their 'femininity'.Liberal reforms placing more women in management positions, for example are not enough. What is required is the emergence of an alternative voice, one grounded in the experience and perceptions of women, that will challenge the patterns of control found in every aspect of modern life. Public discourse today is not the language of women even when women speak it. In this brilliant synthesis of the feminist literature and the literature on organizational theory and practice, the author suggests how a feminist discourse could interject into public debate a reformulation of the basic political questions of power, reason, and organization and thereby legitimate a concern of both autonomy and community. In the face of the massive incursions of bureaucracy into daily life, this is an important contribution to the project of human liberation. Author Kathy E. Ferguson is Associate Professor of Political Science at Siena College.
- GenresFeminismNonfiction
286 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1984
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 30, 2018
This book is amazing. Kathy Ferguson synthesizes Marxism, Foucault, Weber, and radical feminism into a comprehensive anarchist critique of “bureaucratic capitalism” that remains relevant today. (That’s saying something considering that this book came out in 1984!).
If you are seeking to understand how contemporary US society functions at multiple levels, you will be richly rewarded by reading this book. It connects the experience of those both working within (public and private) bureaucratic institutions and those subject to their rule (e.g. welfare recipients and case workers). Ferguson offers the clearest, most compelling, most concrete, and most useful application of Foucauldian theory that I’ve ever read. She also keeps in frame both human agency and multiple systems of domination, as well as a critique of capitalism. Finally, she calls for a collective feminist politics of resistance that “connects the discourse of care to the discourse of freedom.” All of this is a welcome alternative to most contemporary critical theory.
10/10 best and most applicable to actual life theory book I’ve read in a long time. Definitely worth checking out if you too either work inside a bureaucracy or are subject to the rule of one. Which, in the contemporary United States, is basically everyone.
If you are seeking to understand how contemporary US society functions at multiple levels, you will be richly rewarded by reading this book. It connects the experience of those both working within (public and private) bureaucratic institutions and those subject to their rule (e.g. welfare recipients and case workers). Ferguson offers the clearest, most compelling, most concrete, and most useful application of Foucauldian theory that I’ve ever read. She also keeps in frame both human agency and multiple systems of domination, as well as a critique of capitalism. Finally, she calls for a collective feminist politics of resistance that “connects the discourse of care to the discourse of freedom.” All of this is a welcome alternative to most contemporary critical theory.
10/10 best and most applicable to actual life theory book I’ve read in a long time. Definitely worth checking out if you too either work inside a bureaucracy or are subject to the rule of one. Which, in the contemporary United States, is basically everyone.
June 8, 2021
Ferguson's book is an excellent foray into feminist critical theory as it applies to bureaucratic organization and public administration. The crux of her argument is that bureaucratic organization stifles genuine political discourse and participation because (1) bureaucracy “is hostile to speculative thinking, to rumination on the perennial questions of human life;” (2) “administrative discourse is hostile to the rigorous self-scrutiny that underlies the task of political philosophy;” and (3) “bureaucratic discourse rebuffs the project of social criticism and political change” (pg. 82). As someone who holds a master’s degree in public administration and who works within a public bureaucracy, I can say that these three points are unequivocally factual.
From this critique of bureaucracy, Ferguson argues that the social experiences of the oppressed can offer insights into more genuine forms of political participation. For Ferguson, the most important category of oppressed person is women, who “tend to experience their social worlds differently than do men as a group” (pg. 23). This has generated in women as a group a submerged discourse of passivity and resistance that illuminates the true nature of political and social power. Catharine MacKinnon argues similarly in 'Towards a Feminist Theory of the State.' The conclusion that women are the most important category of oppressed people from which to draw an alternative political understanding is difficult to argue against since women are also submerged within other categories of oppressed people (think here in terms of race, age, religion, sexual orientation). I endorse Ferguson’s conclusion wholeheartedly.
Ferguson moves on from the opening chapters that set up the argument to demonstrate in more concrete terms how bureaucracy crushes political engagement. She draws on de Beauvoir’s notion of the second sex to demonstrate how bureaucratic power renders clients and administrators as (generally) passive subordinates and crushes any political opposition. The key argument here is that clients and administrators must always engage in extreme amounts of impression management and emotional labor. Essentially, both groups must constantly worry about how their superiors will react or perceive them, and so must alter their behavior in order to get or keep a job, gain a promotion, or secure government services. Bureaucracy creates a rift between administrators and clients to ensure elite control; in reality, clients and bureaucrats have much in common that could lead to dangerous solidarity. Feminist discourse seeks to break down this barrier to build said solidarity and overthrow elite, masculine control and foster a more genuine democratic experience. For those who have read David Graeber’s 'Utopia of Rules,' you should recognize instantly that this informs the majority of his argument. It was from the notes section of Graeber’s work that I learned of Ferguson’s work (to his credit, Graeber has written and stated explicitly that his analysis stems almost entirely from the feminist understanding of power).
The final chapter points the reader towards a feminist discourse that imagines a collective way of life that highlights care and cooperation. There is some practical advice, such as the suggestion that the division of labor should be managed in a way that imitates the vertical division of labor found in radical feminist groups, where the work process is divided "into areas within which each individual has responsibility for both the creative and routine aspects of the task" (pg. 205)
All-in-all, Ferguson’s book is a must read for anyone interested in politics or administration. My copy is littered with margin notes and highlights on every single page. This is a book one should return to over and over again.
From this critique of bureaucracy, Ferguson argues that the social experiences of the oppressed can offer insights into more genuine forms of political participation. For Ferguson, the most important category of oppressed person is women, who “tend to experience their social worlds differently than do men as a group” (pg. 23). This has generated in women as a group a submerged discourse of passivity and resistance that illuminates the true nature of political and social power. Catharine MacKinnon argues similarly in 'Towards a Feminist Theory of the State.' The conclusion that women are the most important category of oppressed people from which to draw an alternative political understanding is difficult to argue against since women are also submerged within other categories of oppressed people (think here in terms of race, age, religion, sexual orientation). I endorse Ferguson’s conclusion wholeheartedly.
Ferguson moves on from the opening chapters that set up the argument to demonstrate in more concrete terms how bureaucracy crushes political engagement. She draws on de Beauvoir’s notion of the second sex to demonstrate how bureaucratic power renders clients and administrators as (generally) passive subordinates and crushes any political opposition. The key argument here is that clients and administrators must always engage in extreme amounts of impression management and emotional labor. Essentially, both groups must constantly worry about how their superiors will react or perceive them, and so must alter their behavior in order to get or keep a job, gain a promotion, or secure government services. Bureaucracy creates a rift between administrators and clients to ensure elite control; in reality, clients and bureaucrats have much in common that could lead to dangerous solidarity. Feminist discourse seeks to break down this barrier to build said solidarity and overthrow elite, masculine control and foster a more genuine democratic experience. For those who have read David Graeber’s 'Utopia of Rules,' you should recognize instantly that this informs the majority of his argument. It was from the notes section of Graeber’s work that I learned of Ferguson’s work (to his credit, Graeber has written and stated explicitly that his analysis stems almost entirely from the feminist understanding of power).
The final chapter points the reader towards a feminist discourse that imagines a collective way of life that highlights care and cooperation. There is some practical advice, such as the suggestion that the division of labor should be managed in a way that imitates the vertical division of labor found in radical feminist groups, where the work process is divided "into areas within which each individual has responsibility for both the creative and routine aspects of the task" (pg. 205)
All-in-all, Ferguson’s book is a must read for anyone interested in politics or administration. My copy is littered with margin notes and highlights on every single page. This is a book one should return to over and over again.
January 5, 2016
On the whole, an excellent book particularly the analysis of the discourse used within the realm of public administration and within bureaucracy in general. For me, the discussion of the familial issues dealt with in the last chapter would have been more complete if the hierarchies within families used to subjugate youth, elders, and disabled folks in caretaking contexts had been called into question. But, that caveat aside, the book has been a great boon in helping me to understand the problematic features of my public administration education.
May 2, 2018
loved it, but also I had a hard time understanding some of the more deep points. Maybe I just need to read this kind of thing more often.
September 24, 2024
Dated but still pretty radical.
May 1, 2017
Fantastic book filled with ideas and concepts that really make you think about the way our bureaucratic world is organized, and how it could be better. Would love to read an updated version of this book, but a great book to consider if you are interested in gender and the workplace.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews