Census of Female Public Library Directors Is on the Decline

This exploratory study examines the gender parity of public library directors. While there has been considerable research on the role of women library leaders in academic libraries through the 1990s, little is known about the gender parity of public library directors. The membership of the Urban Libraries Council (ULC) serves as the sample size for this study. Gender parity of public library directors reached its zenith in 1999 with 65% of public library directors being women. A little over twenty years later, that number declined to 57.82%, a reduction of about seven percent. This study demonstrates the gender parity of public library directors has not been met.