Female Officers in Masculine Countries 07/19/2010

Over the past 50 years America has made headway in assimilating females into the police force, but America is not the only country making changes in police hiring practices. Many other counties are beginning to see the benefits of having females in their police force, however, that is not to say that these women are having an easy time being accepted by their male counterparts and the rest of their country. In traditionally oppressed countries, females are struggling to gain acceptance in their newfound roles as peace officers.

In some countries, the basic law enforcement necessities are either not given or issued in a gender specific manner to female officers. In 2009, the London Metropolitan Police was still issuing men’s uniforms to women, as they had not developed a uniform cut to fit a woman’s form (Williams, 2009). In order for their uniforms to fit them correctly, the women had to have their uniforms tailored. For example in China, a police woman’s uniform consists of a knee length shirt and wedge boots, compared to Russia’s female uniform, which is a short skirt and two inch black heels. This shows that female uniforms are all different around the world and that the uniform depends on the country they are in.

While female officers in the United States struggle to overcome discrimination, officers in other countries suffer from more severe forms of sexual harassment. In Uganda, the police women are severely harassed. The female officers face sexual harassment, victimization, lack of support from their supervisors, and a failure to be promoted, paid, or provided an adequate uniform and housing (Ssejjoba, 2009). Some police women must perform sexual favors for their superiors in order to be deployed or promoted while other officers state that they were sexually abused by their male counterparts, and as a result, contracted HIV (Ssejjoba, 2009).

Currently, the Afghan Nation Police is looking to hire an additional 5,000 female officers to supplement its current 1,000 female officers (Brown, 2010). However, the Afghan government is struggling to recruit women due to hash discrimination, continuous death threats, lack of familial support, and general negativity female applicants experience. On September 28, 2008, Lieutenant-Colonel Malalai Kakar—Afghan’s most prominent and highly ranked female officer—was assassinated outside her home on her way to work (The Times, 2008).

Despite the inherent dangers of the job, police women perform invaluable tasks that male officers, due to Afghan culture, cannot perform. In Afghan culture, men cannot approach another man’s wife, enter a home when women are within the common areas, or touch women (which means they cannot search them); all of these cultural restrictions severely inhibit the police (The Times, 2008; Brown, 2010; Vogt, 2009). When the Taliban started recruiting females for suicide bombings and shooting, the ability to search a female has become paramount. Female officers, though cultural standards, can do those tasks, giving the police a huge advantage.

As each country advances towards a more diverse police force, the benefits of hiring females becomes apparent. For many countries, the cultural standards that prevent females from entering the force also prevent males from preforming their jobs adequately. Governments are beginning to realize that having a gender-balanced police force provides invaluable opportunities that were not available to an all male police force.

Works Cited

Brown, S. (2010, February 3). Afghan National Police Seeks 5,000 Policewomen Per Karzai . Retrieved from NATO Training Mission - Afghanistan : http://www.ntm-a.com/news/categories/police/2-afghan-national-police-discuss-plan-future?lang

Ssejjoba, E. (2009, April 12). Uganda: Police Women Cite Sexual Abuse. Retrieved from All Africa: http://allafrica.com/stories/200904130492.html

The Times. (2008, October 17). Lieutenant-Colonel Malalai Kakar. Retrieved from The Sunday Times: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article4957228.ece

Vogt, H. (2009, December 30). Missourian. Retrieved from Afghan police work helps women overcome barriers : http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2009/12/30/afghan-police-work-overcome-barriers-women/

Williams, R. (2009, Mqy 13). Policewomen forced to wear men's uniforms. Retrieved from Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/13/police-women-uniform-sexism

Russian Mounted Policewomen

Russian women are slowly integrating themselves into a male dominated area of their police force.

Why Women Should Not Be Cops 07/05/2010

1. Female Police Officer:

Female who like to cross-dress; typically in police uniform, toting a firearm. Such females are generally man-hating, carpet-munching, sexual harassment screaming, control-freaking, closet lesbians, "Daddy Touched Me", "Had no social life in High School" rejects.

The above 'definition' can be found on the popular website urbandictionary.com. While not accurate, the description does bring forward many stereotypes female officers face on a daily basis. Over the last twenty years the controversy surrounding women entering the police field has reduced in both occurrence and harshness, yet many still feel that women do not belong in policing. Why? For that answer, you need not look at scientific research or peer-reviewed journal articles, but rather conduct a simple Google search of “Why women shouldn’t be cops”. This is because there is little to no published research that has found that women should not—or cannot—be law enforcement officers.

So, why should women not be cops? What are the general perceptions and opinions floating throughout American culture as to why a female cannot be a cop? There are several major concerns that people have: women are seen as emotional and thus unreasonable, women are not seen as having the necessary personality traits desired by the policing profession, and women are physically weaker than men.

Miller (1999) found that women are characterized by cultural definitions of what a woman should be. For instance, a woman is stereotypically defined as emotional and physically fragile, with a gentle and compassionate nature; these character traits counter to the general perception of what traits are needed to be a police officer --for a cop must be brave and aggressive, balancing rationality and objectivity. The cultural definition of femininity and masculinity marks women as incompetent to perform effectively as a peace officer. Many women also face complications when balancing family life—specifically, raising children—with the requirements of policing. As Dick and Cassell (2004) point out, police agencies find it difficult to recruit and retain women that have children or have had children while working as a peace officer.

Many also feel that police work is dangerous, and therefore women should be kept safe from the inherent liabilities officers face on a day to day basis. Police work is dirty work; officers regularly deal with things that, societally, women are not classified to deal with. Fighting, blood, seeing dead bodies, guns, communicable diseases, and the possibility of being killed on duty are all risks that officers face daily; inherently, men feel that they must protect and watch over women to (similar to the logic used to keep females from fighting on the frontlines in war) keep them out of danger.

The main argument used in defending this stance is the fact that women are naturally weaker than men. As Charles found in 1981, a peace officer’s ability to fend off a violent attacker might be the difference between life and death. Many officers feel that their female counterparts are a liability risk in a fight; since a female is weaker than a male, she cannot offer much assistance in a fight and will need to be protected to prevent injury—both to males that need to step in to take up her slack, and to a female that is overpowered by a larger assailant (Charles, 1981).

Police culture is masculine in origin and has, for years, been performed exclusively by men. Although the larger proportion of society has concluded that women are just as adequate to be officers like men, social stigmas, preconceived notions, and remarks of inadequacy create the ideology that women are incompetent—and incapable—of performing law enforcement duties, which has been proven not to be the case.

Works Cited

(2006, June 24). Retrieved from Urban Dictionary: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=female%20cop

Charles, M. T. (1981). The performance and socialization of female recruits in the Michigan State Police Training Academy. Journal of Police Science and Administration, Vol. 9, No. 2 , pp. 209-223.

Dick, P., & Cassell, C. (2004). The Position of Policewomen: A Discourse Analytic Study. Work, Employment & Society 18:1 , pp. 51–72.

Garcia, V. (2003 , August). ''Difference'' in the Police Department : Women, Policing, and ''Doing Gender''. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice Vol. 19 No. 3 , pp. 330-344.

Miller, S. L. (1999). Gender and community policing: Walking the talk. Boston: Northeastern University Press.