The Impact of Equal Opportunities Policies on the Day-to-Day Experiences of Women Police Constables

Martin, Carol

doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.bjc.a014108

Cited by 43 publications

(39 citation statements)

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“…Keywords Gender, Women workers, Police, Career development, United Kingdom (Martin, 1996). Women were largely invisible in that much of crime and police management research focused on offenders and victims (Heidenshohn, 1986(Heidenshohn, , 1992.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The study of women in criminal justice was virtually ignored until the rise of what was loosely called police feminist writings dating from the 1960s (Martin, 1996). Women were largely invisible in that much of crime and police management research focused on offenders and victims (Heidenshohn, 1986(Heidenshohn, , 1992.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Originality/value -The paper make an original contribution by refuting widely held assumptions about the reasons for under-representation of female officers in senior ranks. It also contributes to the sparse literature that examines organisational commitment in the police and its antecedents.Keywords Gender, Women workers, Police, Career development, United Kingdom (Martin, 1996). Women were largely invisible in that much of crime and police management research focused on offenders and victims (Heidenshohn, 1986(Heidenshohn, , 1992.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Alternatively, research in the USA on women and policing in the 1970s and 1980s addressed issues relating to women's physical performance to undertake policing work (Martin and Jurik, 1996). It is only recently that the role and experience of women in the UK police has become the subject of detailed academic scrutiny as the numbers of female police officers have slowly risen throughout the 1990s (Brown and Heidenshohn, 2000;Brown, 1998;Martin, 1996). Yet, the adequate representation of women police officers in higher ranks continues to be problematical.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…For example in 2005 13 per cent of female officers were sergeants compared to twenty-four per cent for male officers (RDS, 2005). Police management scholars have highlighted that women's limited advancement in the police profession is problematic because of the work and cultural barriers faced by female officers emanating from police organisation and managerial structures (Martin, 1979;Young, 1991;Martin, 1996;Walklate, 1993Walklate, , 1995Fielding, 1994).We would expect in the absence of work and cultural barriers that women's progress in their police career would be linked to tenure and to behaviour which scholars would describe as organisational commitment. However, there appears to be little empirical research that can throw light on whether there are gender differences in tenure and/or organisational commitment and its antecedents in the police.…”

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confidence: 99%

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The progress of female police officers?

Dick

Metcalfe

2007

International Journal of Public Sector Management

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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to establish empirically whether there is any foundation in the premise that female officers' lesser tenure and/or lower levels of commitment than men explain their lack of career progress. Although the number of women in UK police forces has grown rapidly, it appears that they continue to be under-represented in senior ranks. Design/methodology/approach -Using whole population surveys of two county police forces in the UK the paper compares the promotion of men and women police officers controlling for tenure. The paper then compares the organisational commitment of male and female officers and analyses whether female officers experience managerial and organisational influences that undermine their organisational commitment compared to men. Findings -The findings refute some of the widespread beliefs about reasons for female officers' lack of progress in their policing careers since the analysis indicates that gender differences in length of tenure and organisational commitment can be discounted as possible explanations for lack of advancement in these two police forces. Overall, the results clearly show that female officers are just as committed as male officers and thus cannot be justified as a reason for lack of career progression. Research limitations/implications -It is accepted that survey methods such as ours do not capture the entirety of employee feelings and responses since they tend to homogenise male and female working experiences. However, survey methods do have the advantage that it is possible to generalise from the results and thus these two studies allow us to suggest that our findings can be viewed as providing insights to other UK police forces. Practical implications -The relatively low levels of organisational commitment found should be a cause for concern for senior managers in the Police. The key importance that management has in influencing organisational commitment has been shown by our findings and this indicates the importance of the current Police Leadership Development Board's agenda to improve workforce management skills to encourage transformational leadership styles. Originality/value -The paper make an original contribution by refuting widely held assumptions about the reasons for under-representation of female officers in senior ranks. It also contributes to the sparse literature that examines organisational commitment in the police and its antecedents.Keywords Gender, Women workers, Police, Career development, United Kingdom (Martin, 1996). Women were largely invisible in that much of crime and police management research focused on offenders and victims (Heidenshohn, 1986(Heidenshohn, , 1992. Alternatively, research in the USA on women and policing in the 1970s and 1980s addressed issues relating to women's physical performance to undertake policing work (Martin and Jurik, 1996). It is only recently that the role and experience of women in the UK police has become the subject of detailed academic scrutiny as the numbers of female ...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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