The plight of women in the field of law enforcement
closely parallels the experience of women as a whole in their conquest to
achieve equal rights under the law to their male counterparts. In a multitude
of categories, throughout history, women have been denied opportunities and
have been underpaid, under-hired, and just generally mistreated in a
male-dominated society. Overall, police women have experienced inequality in
the workplace that is representative of modern gender role socialization.
Gender role socialization begins at the earliest of ages and often instills varying meanings, expectations, and codes of behaviors for boys and girls to fulfill. For example, young girls are often raised with the idea that chores such as doing laundry, cooking, and cleaning are jobs for females while being a breadwinner and taking care of yard work would be chores for the males of the house. This type of gender role socialization is evident for female police officers in numerous ways.
For one, many female police officers throughout history have been forced into early retirement because of marriage and parenting (Shelly et al., 2011). This is representative of the enduring gender role socialization because in this traditional model, the women are stereotypically designated to child rearing duties which are prioritized over their careers. Therefore, men become solely responsible for supporting the family financially while the women take care of the household chores and raise the children.
Another way in which police women have become victims of traditional gender role socialization is that the culture of the police force often relies on masculine symbols, language, and behavior to accomplish tasks and establish order (Shelly et al., 2011). Countless police women have expressed similar sentiments about being victims of harassment from their male counterparts within their departments (Shelly et al., 2011). Along the same lines, perhaps also as a derivative of gender role socialization, women are stereotypically doubted for their ability to “fight crime” because they are perceived as being less physically capable than men, even though this is often not the case.
Yet another example of inequality experienced by police women would be the difficulty they have experienced in receiving promotions and acquiring high status positions within their respective departments. As of 2011, it was reported that less than one in five police departments utilizes recruiting strategies aimed specifically to gain female officers and less than half of all police agencies have women who hold positions of high authority (Shelly et al., 2011). Furthermore, studies suggest that police women often attempt to alienate themselves from other female officers within the department in order to compete for the acceptance of the powerful authoritarian figures in the company in hopes of receiving promotions (Shelly et al., 2011). This phenomenon only isolates them more instead of uniting themselves as a coalition of gendered-minority officers within the police department.
All of these examples illustrate the struggles that police women have and continue to experience. But the plight of women in the police force is just a small glimpse into the inequality and mistreatment that women as a whole have and continue to experience in society overall. These concepts accurately align with the conflict theory of sociology because they exemplify the exploitation, unequal treatment, competition, and challenging of the status quo that women continue to fight against. While tremendous strides have been made, this inequality undoubtedly still exists and it is time to rise up against it.
Gender role socialization begins at the earliest of ages and often instills varying meanings, expectations, and codes of behaviors for boys and girls to fulfill. For example, young girls are often raised with the idea that chores such as doing laundry, cooking, and cleaning are jobs for females while being a breadwinner and taking care of yard work would be chores for the males of the house. This type of gender role socialization is evident for female police officers in numerous ways.
For one, many female police officers throughout history have been forced into early retirement because of marriage and parenting (Shelly et al., 2011). This is representative of the enduring gender role socialization because in this traditional model, the women are stereotypically designated to child rearing duties which are prioritized over their careers. Therefore, men become solely responsible for supporting the family financially while the women take care of the household chores and raise the children.
Another way in which police women have become victims of traditional gender role socialization is that the culture of the police force often relies on masculine symbols, language, and behavior to accomplish tasks and establish order (Shelly et al., 2011). Countless police women have expressed similar sentiments about being victims of harassment from their male counterparts within their departments (Shelly et al., 2011). Along the same lines, perhaps also as a derivative of gender role socialization, women are stereotypically doubted for their ability to “fight crime” because they are perceived as being less physically capable than men, even though this is often not the case.
Yet another example of inequality experienced by police women would be the difficulty they have experienced in receiving promotions and acquiring high status positions within their respective departments. As of 2011, it was reported that less than one in five police departments utilizes recruiting strategies aimed specifically to gain female officers and less than half of all police agencies have women who hold positions of high authority (Shelly et al., 2011). Furthermore, studies suggest that police women often attempt to alienate themselves from other female officers within the department in order to compete for the acceptance of the powerful authoritarian figures in the company in hopes of receiving promotions (Shelly et al., 2011). This phenomenon only isolates them more instead of uniting themselves as a coalition of gendered-minority officers within the police department.
All of these examples illustrate the struggles that police women have and continue to experience. But the plight of women in the police force is just a small glimpse into the inequality and mistreatment that women as a whole have and continue to experience in society overall. These concepts accurately align with the conflict theory of sociology because they exemplify the exploitation, unequal treatment, competition, and challenging of the status quo that women continue to fight against. While tremendous strides have been made, this inequality undoubtedly still exists and it is time to rise up against it.