Putting their Bodies on the Line: Police Culture and Gendered Physicality

Westmarland, Louise

doi:10.1093/police/pax019

Cited by 28 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…One feature of research on gender in policing is the analysis of harassment, restrictions on promotion and role restrictions, which create a feeling of marginalization, increased pressure around performance and a lack of encouragement compared with their male counterparts (Cockroft 2013). Westmarland (2017) stresses that the gendered female body is seen to have competencies around the treatment of women victims of physical and sexual assaults because women officers can supposedly empathize with victims and inspect injuries; this makes women officers more versatile as ‘body experts’ in the cases of such violations. On the other hand, this may categorize women in ways that restrict their potential role in policing and their career prospects.…”

Section: Police Culture and Gendermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other hand, this may categorize women in ways that restrict their potential role in policing and their career prospects. Westmarland (2017) also argued that women can be martial arts experts or body builders, but police culture tends to view men as having superior ways of using their weight and displaying endurance. Bodies are the determinant of competence, not only where physical force is actually required, such as in fights and struggles where police have to put ‘hands on’ suspects to make an arrest, but also in a myriad of other situations.…”

Section: Police Culture and Gendermentioning

confidence: 99%

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Racist bullying of BAME (Black and Asian Minority Ethnic) women within police services in England: Race, gender and police culture

Hasan

2021

International Journal of Police Science & Management

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This article examines the hidden and under-researched area of bullying and harassment of Black and Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) women in the police service in England. It discusses the impact of a historical policy failure to acknowledge the importance of intersectionality in matters of diversity and the continuing struggle between race and gender. This contributes to the ‘invisibility and sexualization’ of BAME women in policing. In doing so, it makes BAME women susceptible to unique tactics of bullying and harassment that contribute to their impeded progression compared with their White counterparts. These unique tactics are enhanced by the police organization and enforced by police culture. The article concludes that the bullying and harassment of BAME women are underpinned by issues of patriarchy and racism that are difficult to challenge in a bureaucratic and hierarchical organization like the police.

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Section: Police Culture and Gendermentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Police Culture and Gendermentioning

confidence: 99%

Racist bullying of BAME (Black and Asian Minority Ethnic) women within police services in England: Race, gender and police culture

Hasan

2021

International Journal of Police Science & Management

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“…This context makes women's bodies problematic in the police service, where the 'ideal' officer has been constructed as being 'ever available' and wholly flexible (Dick, 2009;Silvestri et al, 2013). Bodies must conform (Yates et al, 2018) by being masculine, strong, fit and without family commitments (Charlesworth and Whittenbury, 2007;Dick, 2009;Westmarland, 2017). The male body is valorised (Kringen and Novich, 2018), while women's bodies are subject to intense scrutiny (Yates et al, 2018) and rendered as 'other' (Kringen and Novich, 2018).…”

Section: Embodiment and Menopause Transitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This study focuses upon the police service, a setting which is argued to be highly masculine and subject to intense scrutiny of 'bodily conformity' (Westmarland, 2017). It develops a contextualised understanding of women's embodied experiences of menopause transition.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Menopause Taboo at Work: Examining Women’s Embodied Experiences of Menopause in the UK Police Service

Atkinson

Carmichael

Duberley

2020

Work, Employment and Society

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This article contributes to the growing body of knowledge about gendered ageing at work through an examination of the embodied experiences of women undergoing menopause transition in the UK police service. Drawing on 1197 survey responses, providing both quantitative and qualitative data gathered across three police forces in 2017–18, the findings highlight the importance of a material-discursive approach that considers contextual influences on women’s bodily experiences. The article evidences gendered ageism and the penalty suffered by women whose ageing bodies fail to comply with an ideal worker norm. It makes an important contribution both to theorising embodiment, drawing in age as well as gender discourses, and to promoting a material-discursive approach that recognises the materiality of the body while also offering the potential for agency, reflection and resistance.

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“…Gendered police roles and attitudes are bound up with embodied power, patriarchy, and machismo (Westmarland, 2017). In her police ethnographic work, Souhami (2014) found that women staff were subject to overtly exclusionary language that was not censured by their managers.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Looking back, i wouldn’t join up again’: the lived experiences of police officers as victims of bias and prejudice perpetrated by fellow staff within an english police force

Zempi

2018

Police Practice and Research

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Women, ethnic minority and LGB police officers often experience prejudice, disadvantage and exclusion within police forces because of their perceived 'otherness' in a predominantly white, heterosexual, male organisation. In the context of an increasingly diverse service, the paper argues that the concept of intersectionality is important in order to understand the experiences of police officers who encounter bias and prejudice because of their multiple, intersecting identities. Drawing on data from qualitative interviews with 20 individuals based in an English police force, the paper examines their occupational experiences of bias, discrimination and exclusion perpetrated by their colleagues and supervisors. Utilising Hirschman's (1970) 'exit, voice and loyalty' model, the paper analyses how police officers are affected by, and respond to these experiences. Taken together, these arguments lay the foundation for future work to further understand the experiences of police officers as victims of bias and prejudice due to their multiple, intersecting identities.

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Putting their Bodies on the Line: Police Culture and Gendered Physicality

Cited by 28 publications

References 9 publications

Racist bullying of BAME (Black and Asian Minority Ethnic) women within police services in England: Race, gender and police culture

Racist bullying of BAME (Black and Asian Minority Ethnic) women within police services in England: Race, gender and police culture

The Menopause Taboo at Work: Examining Women’s Embodied Experiences of Menopause in the UK Police Service

‘Looking back, i wouldn’t join up again’: the lived experiences of police officers as victims of bias and prejudice perpetrated by fellow staff within an english police force

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