This paper reflects on the latent organisational process that leads tothe scarcity of women in senior positions. Utilising characteristics of legitimisation, institutionalisation and self-determination theories the paper observes how women manage upward mobility. Subsequently, it was important to investigate the mid-level cohorts, as there lies the critical question triggering the anomaly. Focusing on the public sector with an interest in gendered organisations, the study examines law enforcement. Conversely, the aim of this paper is to focus on why there is a continued dearth in the number of policewomen at top level positions in USA and Australia. A qualitative study with a phenomenological approach is applied. Semi-structured interviews are conducted with 40 policewomen in mid-management positions in American and Australian law enforcement. It further aims to explore the linkages of the ongoing paucity of gendered leadership in organisations, questioning how these will influence women's ability to advance to higher-level positions.

This roundtable paper will demonstrate that the most central issue in questions of heritage involves changing perception of newborn human life. How does our definition of what comes before us change when the essence of what we are shifts with historical circumstances? In addition, this paper will demonstrate how professors can use research to “professionalize” undergraduates, a proposition that can seem easy in fields like nursing and yet becomes more difficult in English literature and can, at times, turn the broad and complex benefits of the study of literature into a “job training” to become efficient and literate office assistants. However, by engaging our undergraduates early and deeply in research, we professionalize them in a way that does not reduce it to job training. We broaden their horizons and connections, teach them to think deeply and imaginatively, and expose them to the potential of their curiosity. In sum, early exposure to research exponentially expands their abilities, endows them with confidence and allows them to imagine their lives and professions outside narrow frames of geography, age, or class that would limit their professional potential.

This paper explores protean careers US and Australian policewomen seek post retirement. Two research questions address why policewomen seek a protean career after retirement from law enforcement. The study utilised a phenomenological approach involving semi-structured interviews conducted with 40 policewomen in middle and top management roles in the USA and Australia. Analysis of data involved coding for emergent themes based on the interpretivist research philosophy. Interview transcripts of 40 policewomen from these countries show that more than 90% of the women from the USA were aggressively seeking to develop protean careers while that was not the case in Australian law enforcement. The paper demonstrates the current situation in the USA and Australia; and how it can conceptualise models for emerging economies. It provides important lessons for women in organisations, especially in emerging economies on how to create protean careers post retirement.

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