Findings show that women are motivated to become police officers because of financial security (this is twice as true for black women as for white women) and as a result of family or friends' encouragement (this is more true for white than black women). Also, pre-employment exposure to police work was an important factor in black women's entering police work. Problems in the previous assignment were more often noted as a precursor to requesting assignment to the police academy than was the desire for a steady day shift. Most women derived job satisfaction from their academy assignment. Further, most women in the study were preparing for promotion examinations. Almost all black women officers in this study and over half of the white women reported that discrimination existed in the department; they perceived that male domination in policing created professional obstacles to career advancement and satisfaction for women. Although some believe that the passage of time is all that is needed for women to achieve equality in policing, others argue that barriers to achieving promotions, job security, and comparable assignments and salaries will persist. Gender bias is attitudinal as well as behavioral, but the organization and its practices are inherently structural. Social scientists disagree as to whether structural and technical changes or attitudinal changes must occur first in order to achieve social change. A case can be made for both having to occur, and in relation to one another, before gender equality will be achieved in a police department.
Female Police Officers in the United States (From Policing in Central and Eastern Europe: Comparing Firsthand Knowledge With Experience From the West, P 635-640, 1996, Milan Pagon, ed. -- See NCJ-170291)
NCJ Number
170346
Date Published
1996
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This study examined the integration of women into policing in the New York Police Department, based on interviews with a sample of female officers in this department.
Abstract