This useful collection of case studies of women in Arizona, Texas, Utah, and California state bureaucracies is a cooperative comparative venture among authors asking similar questions about obstacles to and facilitators of women's career advancement. The editors proceed from the proposition that bureaucracies should be democratic. More specifically, they submit that proportional representation of women in bureaucracies will result in public policy that is more in women's interests than policy produced by predominantly male bureaucrats. The authors find support for this proposition; female bureaucrats are generally more supportive than male bureaucrats of public policies responsive to women's needs. The case studies also illustrate how the status of women in state bureaucracies is dependent on gubernatorial electoral politics. "Choice"

While a number of researchers have focused on female employment at the managerial level, this book is the first to deal specifically with advances made by women in obtaining high-level positions in state government. Using questionnaire data from several southwestern states, Hale and Kelly examine the extent to which equal opportunity has become a reality for women in state and municipal civil service careers.

In two introductory chapters, Hale and Kelly develop the theoretical perspective and conceptual framework on which their analysis is based. They identify and discuss interrelationships of gender, democracy, and representative bureaucracy as well as the individual factors that promote and impede the career advancement of women. The findings of case studies undertaken in Arizona, Texas, Utah, and California are presented in separate chapters. Variables treated in the studies include career mobility, success, and satisfaction; employment behavior; perceptions of barriers to advancement; sources and types of support; domestic responsibilities and constraints; and childhood and professional socialization. The final section of the book summarizes the results of a separate study on work force trends, labor pool availability, and hiring and firing rates in 93 southwestern cities. Providing new information and a model for further research in the field, this book will be of interest for courses or independent work in women's studies, public policy, social change, political science, manpower studies, and public administration.

"On Uganda's Terms" is the gripping tale of the author's experiences as an American nurse during the vicious and brutal reign of Idi Amin. Ms. Hale tells the story of the struggles she faced while striving to improve the Ugandan health care system in the 1960s - 70s. Recalling a saying from the Talmud-""If you can save one life, you can save a generation,"" she worked to improve health care in the midst of this African nation's most horrific time in history.

About the Author:
Mary M. Hale, RNC, MSN, SRN, SCM, has been a Nurse-Midwife for 35 years. Ten of those years she served under the Ministry of Health in Uganda, East Africa where she set up the first post-graduate pediatric nursing program. Hale has written about these experiences in her first book "On Uganda's Terms" telling the obstacles to saving lives under the worst of circumstances while working tirelessly against the odds of Idi Amin.
She retired after 27 years in Pediatrics and Obstetrics at Albert Einstein Medical Center, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 2006. Her first year of retirement was spent writing her autobiography "On Uganda's Terms." In her second year she finished "Beyond Nurses Notes - A Journey to Choose Life."

"Beyond Nurses Notes - A Journey to Choose Life" by Mary M. Hale (RNC, MSN, SRN, SCM), intertwines her stories from Pediatrics and Obstetrics over a period of 27 years of her service at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, PA. She includes several anecdotes from her 10-year career working in Uganda under the rule of the villainous leader Idi Amin, serving five of them as a nursing supervisor. Hale believes these experiences with her patients in the United States and abroad taught her about humanity and made her the person she is, allowing her to "choose life" for herself.

Hale also shares her journey through her surgical experience as a patient. In 2008, she chose life and survived a six-week hospitalization for quadruple cardiac bypass surgery and a hysterectomy to eliminate cancer which was successful. This is her second book about nursing.

About the Author:
Mary M. Hale, RNC, MSN, SRN, SCM, has been a Nurse-Midwife for 35 years. Ten of those years she served under the Ministry of Health in Uganda, East Africa where she set up the first post-graduate pediatric nursing program. Hale has written about these experiences in her first book "On Uganda's Terms" telling the obstacles to saving lives under the worst of circumstances while working tirelessly against the odds of Idi Amin.
She retired after 27 years in Pediatrics and Obstetrics at Albert Einstein Medical Center, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 2006. Her first year of retirement was spent writing her autobiography "On Uganda's Terms." In her second year she finished "Beyond Nurses Notes - A Journey to Choose Life."