# Women in Policing



## Guest (Sep 13, 2011)

I belong to the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (insert geek/dork joke here) and I get _Police Quarterly, _which is a journal with police and CJ-related academic articles. Most of them are extremely dry and delve into the excrutiating, irrelevant minutae of police work, but every once in awhile, something interesting pops up, like in the latest issue. There's an article that looks into the subject of females in (sworn) police work, including recruitment, retention, and most interestingly, the opinions of female officers versus their police chiefs.

The article also tracked the percentage of females in sworn positions over the years, starting in 1987 (right before my rookie year), through 2007, and the findings were interesting;

1987 - 7.6%

1990 - 8.1%

1993 - 8.8%

1997 - 11.0%

2000 - 11.0%

2003 - 11.3%

2007 - 11.9%

Concerning retention, female officers and their police chiefs were polled on why there is retention problems with females;

*The Police Academy is male-dominated and not female-friendly

*Chiefs - 13%

Females - 51%

*The police culture is male-dominated and not female-friendly

*Chiefs - 45%

Females - 73%

*Sexual Harrassment

*Chiefs - 13%

Females - 27%

*Lack of Advancemet Opportunities

*Chiefs - 29%

Females - 32%

*Lack of family-friendly policies regarding maternity leave, child-car, etc.

*Chiefs - 48%

Females - 66%

*Women officers tend to leave after having children

*Chiefs - 41&

Females - 48%

As far as suggested remedies;

*Targeted recruitment of females

*Chiefs - 77%

Females - 80%

*Less stress in the police academy

*Chiefs - 10%

Females - 20%

*Provide mentors for female applicants

*Chiefs - 43%

Females - 54%

*Provide mentors for female officers

*Chiefs - 36%

Females - 56%

*More family-friendly policies

*Chiefs - 48%

Females - 66%

*Stricter stand against sexual harrassment

*Chiefs - 71%

Females - 37%

And for the copyright Nazis, here is the APA citation;

All information retrieved from: Cordner, G. & Cordner, A.M. (2011) Reaching a plateau? Obstacles to recruitment, selection, and retention of women police. _Police Quarterly _14 (3) 207-236.

My commentary; I found this article very interesting, if for no other reason, I would have sworn there are currently a lot more than about 12% of female officers in the United States. I also found interesting both the similar and differing opinions from chiefs and female officers; I was really surprised that most chiefs (71%) wanted to see a stricter stand against sexual harrassment, while females didn't (37%).

I'm interested to see the opinions of LGriffin and any other female officers/former officers/aspiring officers we may have here.


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## CJIS (Mar 12, 2005)

Interesting I wonder what accounts for the little gain since 1997? I wonder if it has to do with economy or something else.


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## adroitcuffs (Jun 3, 2006)

I'm not surprised by the number of female officers but some of the other statistics are rather interesting. Forgive me, but I never had a concern in the academy that it should be "female friendly", nor was I intimidated that my academy class was mostly male. I entered this profession to be an officer, not to be a _female _officer. What, exactly, would a "female friendly" academy look like? Manicure stations to freshen up at the end of each day? Free feminine products? I'm curious to know about those who responded there should be "less stress" in the academy. I can't say I found a lot of "joy" in being yelled at whilst doing push-ups on the asphalt in 100F+ weather, but if you can't handle the stress imposed on you in the controlled environment of the academy setting, how are you going to handle decision making when real bullets are really flying far too close to your pretty little manicure?

There are fundamental skills all officers must possess, regardless of gender. It would be a disservice to all involved to lower the fundamental standards to fill quotas and / or retain a certain group of individuals. From a sociological perspective, female and male officers bring different things to the forum of law enforcement. Those inherent differences should be respected, developed, and utilized to the benefit of both the officers and the communities they serve. Mentors for applicants would definitely be helpful in develping the fundamental skills needed. I've seen some very successful police explorer programs mold young women (as well as young men) into dedicated and skilled, professional police officers.

Sexual harassment and discrimination need to be addressed, however, I don't think it's realistic to expect to work in a completely "sterile" environment. The very demands of the job, the things we see and experience in the course of our duties breed an often off-color and macabre sense of humour that provides a psychological protective layer, if you will. Of course, there are lines that should not be crossed. I've had my share of blatently negative experiences and not only from male officers / superiors. (Some situations I was able to handle by dealing directly with the problem individual. Others, unfortunately, were never completely resolved.)

I think the lack of increase in the number of female officers is multi-faceted but more sociological than anything else. Let's face it, boys and girls are still socialized very differently from day one. Some of that is based on biological differences (yes, we are "wired" differently). Little girls are still more likely to be playing with dolls and such, while boys are out strategizing and playing rough & tumble. These social differences can affect the development of career interests later on.


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