Women and Law Enforcement
Throughout history cultures and beliefs have molded society’s concept of what roles should be played and what jobs performed by women. Women have often been referred to as “the weaker sex” and relegated to tasks that focus around family, home and children. Men, deemed the “stronger sex,” have traditionally held positions of power in the home and in the workplace. As women began to insist on more equal treatment and pay, and more opportunities opened for women through programs such as affirmative action, the inevitable conflict began and continues. Not everyone agrees that women should be able to hold any job they choose. Not everyone believes that women are capable of doing every job. Some still believe that a woman’s place is in the home-not in homeland security. And there are those who say women and law enforcement don’t belong in the same sentence. Over 150 years ago women began their transition into law enforcement. Since that time, they have faced many obstacles including, discrimination, sexual harassment, differential treatment, advancement limits and double standards.
Law enforcement has traditionally been a male dominated field and as such may have been slower than others to accept females into its ranks. Male domination in law enforcement and the idea that force and strength are required, reinforces the belief that women are unable both physically and mentally to do the job. This ideology is still very prevalent in agencies and departments today. The Supreme Court first applied Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to the public sector, including law enforcement in 1972. Agencies could be held liable for discriminating against qualified women. Women filed suits and the courts issued consent decrees that forced agencies to hire qualified women. Not to be deterred by a bit of law, some law enforcement agencies used height and weight limits to prevent women from meeting the qualifications. The courts struck down this practice in 1977 in Dothard vs. Rawlinson. More recently, some agencies manipulate the physical agility testing administered to women applicants to effectively wash them out of the competition.3
The face of law enforcement has changed dramatically over the years and can no longer truly be called a “brotherhood,” because of diversity and the development of “clicks.” However, this “brotherhood” of police officers does exist in the sense that men typically stick together. Female officers must walk a very thin line between remaining feminine, while proving they are just as good as one of the guys. If a female officer is too “prissy” or “girly,” she will not be accepted by the majority. But if she acts or looks too much like one of the guys, she will not be accepted either. Women in law enforcement must constantly watch what they do and say just to be accepted. They face discrimination based on preconceived notions that women are not “cut out” to be police officers. Women must work harder to prove themselves capable of doing their job as well as, or better than, their male counterparts. This can lead to burnout and/or quitting the profession entirely.
Women still experience harassment, lack of acceptance and limitations that men are unlikely to experience. Sexual harassment is still alive and well in the workplace and can create an environment that is intimidating, hostile or otherwise offensive for female officers. Everyday conversations of the past between men in law enforcement and even in the general population has tended to be off color and filled with male biased expressions, slang and terminology that women may find offensive. Based on recent surveys the problem is pervasive. Most women do not confront these situations out of fear of negative male backlash. Instead, they attempt to “live” with them. This adds an additional element of stress to the workplace for female officers.
Women have yet to achieve equal status with men in the workplace when it comes to advancement and pay and this is true in law enforcement as well. Women average about $0.77 to every $1.00 paid to men for the same type of work. The term “glass ceiling” refers to the inability of women to easily advance beyond entry-level positions within a department. It may be virtually invisible, but even with a good aim and a speeding bullet it is very hard to crack. Predominantly, white males have access to advancement over females and minorities. This is yet another reason that women often resign.
Some changes and inroads are being made by and for women in law enforcement. Many women possess better communication and problem solving skills than men. This means, in some cases, they spend more time on individual situations involving calls for assistance within the community. Though in the past they were criticized for “taking too long” or “wasting time,” since the start of Community Oriented Policing (COP), this way of doing things is now common practice by the majority of officers both male and female.
There are programs available to women in law enforcement that can assist them in maintaining and gaining status. Mentors are one of the most effective support tools for women in general and are particularly useful to women in law enforcement. They can provide support to new female recruits, by sharing their wisdom, experience and knowledge-though finding one may be a challenge. There are organizations devoted to women in law enforcement such as: the International Association of Women Police (IAWP), the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives (NAWLEE) and the National Center for Women and Policing (NCWP). All of these organizations focus on different aspects of women in law enforcement, but mainly on enhancing their leadership roles and growth.
If you are a woman interested in a career in law enforcement, know what you are stepping into, know what could happen, know what resources and what recourses are available to you. Be sure you know that it isn’t quite as glamorous as the last episode of CSI. Find yourself a mentor early and establish a solid connection. Know weather or not the agency to which you plan to apply is under court consent decree. Statistics show your chances are nearly fifty percent better of getting into an agency where a consent decree exists. Be aware that it is still a “boys club” and while there are some agencies and departments that have begun to appreciate diversity and the role of women, particularly in community policing, there are still others that don’t think women belong and can be down right ugly about it beneath the surface. If you go in with your eyes open, with a support network in place, educated and capable, there won’t be as many potholes for you to fall into on your road to success. Woman and law enforcement do mix, in fact, they are a necessary, if sometimes missing, ingredient.
1 Greenfield, Lawrence A., and Snell, Tracy L., Bureau of Justice Statistics, Women Offenders (Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, December 1999), p. 6; Harrison, Paige M. & Allen J. Beck, PhD, Bureau Of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 2004 (Washington DC: US Department of Justice, Oct. 2005), p. 9.
2 Amnesty International USA. (2005). Woman’s Human Rights, Women In Prison,
http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/womeninprison.html
3 National Center For Women And Policing, a division of the Feminist Majority Foundation. (2003). Under Scrutiny: The Effect Of Consent Decrees On The Representation Of Women In Law Enforcementhttp://www.womenandpolicing.org/pdf/Fullconsentdecreestudy.pdf
