Survival in an “all boys club”: policewomen and their fight for acceptance

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of policewomen to determine the extent to which female officers face resistance and obstacles to police work, to examine the coping mechanisms female officers utilized to overcome impediments encountered, and to establish common themes in female officers' success stories of acceptance and integration. Design/methodology/approach -Owing to the difficulty in accessing female officers, the current research utilizes in-depth qualitative interviews through snowball sampling. This methodology provided a rich sample of tenured female officers' experiences to explore resistance and integration. Findings -The findings suggest despite early occupational experiences of sexual harassment, discrimination, and disrespect, after long tenures, female officers do achieve acceptance in police work. Female officers are holding high civil service ranks in police agencies and achieving new "firsts" every day, including breaking into stereotypically masculine assignments. Practical implications -As police departments nationwide are having difficulties maintaining recruitment standards and full rosters, the current study can provide insight into the obstacles women face when joining police agencies and methods to alleviate these impediments, revealing an under-recruited population for police agencies nationwide. Originality/value -This study extends past literature by: examining female officers' experiences in a variety of agencies previously ignored in the literature; analyzing the tenure of the officers' careers to determine the onset and desistance of female officers' experiences with resistance and acceptance; and suggesting women do survive and, in some instances, thrive in an "all boys club."

‘Don’t Use “the Weak Word”’: Women Brewers, Identities and Gendered Territories of Embodied Work

“…Existing research on identity construction of women in male-dominated occupations largely focuses on discursive tactics and responses to workplace interactions, and on individual rather than collective aspects of identity construction (e.g. Hatmaker, 2013;Rabe-Hemp, 2008;Smith, 2013). Women in male-dominated environments face unique challenges and revert to distinct coping strategies to negotiate occupational identity (Hatmaker, 2013).…”

“…Bodily performance can be influential in the construction of worker identity (Courpasson and Monties, 2017;Monaghan, 2002) and rich insights from an exploration of the body/work nexus can be gained (Wolkowitz, 2006). To date, research conducted on women in male-dominated environments has largely centred on women in large organisations (Denissen, 2010;Rabe-Hemp, 2008;Woodfield, 2016) rather than in niche sectors. Yet, niche working environments increasingly offer novel opportunities to examine women's embodied and gendered experiences.…”

“…The latter is considered risky, as it encourages women to accentuate their differences and become 8 more visible. However, those who attempt to frame themselves distinctively from male counterparts are most successful in gaining promotion (Rabe-Hemp, 2008).…”

Stress and cardiovascular disease risk in female law enforcement officers

“…It may be even more diYcult and stressful for women in this male-dominated profession. There are unique work-related stressors for female law enforcement oYcers (LEOs), such as a lack of inXuence on policing, language harassment, lack of acceptance by male colleagues and lack of role models and mentoring (Herrington 2002;Morash and Haarr 1995;Rabe-Hemp 2008). Regardless of gender, there are aspects of police work which can be highly stressful.…”

“…When compared with their male counterparts, the risk for CVD and job-related stress in female LEOs has been understudied. Women have a higher CVD mortality rate than men (Hayes 2006), and female LEOs may be under greater stress than male LEOs (Herrington 2002;Morash and Haarr 1995;Rabe-Hemp 2008). Therefore, female LEOs may have a greater stress-related CVD prevalence than male LEOs.…”