A gender analysis of women in public-private-voluntary sector ‘partnerships’

The nature of work and traditional notions of the public sector have been changing with increasing collaborative governance and delivery of public services among public, private and voluntary sector organizations. In the UK, governments at national and devolved levels of government have adopted a collaborative governance approach to service delivery through various network and partnership arrangements. This paper explores these collaborative governance arrangements from a gender perspective, specifically the perceptions of women in public-private-voluntary sector partnerships. While previous research in this area have explored aspects of collaborative governance such as power, trust, accountability, decision making, performance, exchange of information and participation; there is very little research on women within these networks. The paper therefore provides a gendered analysis, disaggregating survey data to better understand the dynamics, for women, of collaborative governance and partnerships among public, private and voluntary sector organizations.