Breaking and Entering - Policewomen On Patrol

• NCJ Number: 73685
• Author(s): S E Martin
• Date Published: 1980
• Length: 280 pages
• Sale Source: University of California Press
• Publication Type: Thesis/Dissertation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Originally written as a doctoral dissertation for the American University, Washington, DC.

Annotation

Using a detailed case study of officers in one police district in Washington, D.C., this book examines the barriers patrolwomen encounter, how the women cope with these barriers, and the impact of female officers on policemen, the citizens in the street, and the occupation of policing.

Abstract

Data were collected through participant observation and structured interviews. A total of 55 officers and 15 officials from the police district were interviewed, including all of the women assigned to the district with 1 year of police experience and an equal number of male officers matched for length of service and race. Discussion covers the changing role of policewomen, interactional barriers in the stationhouse and on the street, and role options, dilemmas, and prospects. The problems that policewomen face include the conflict between sex role and occupational role norms, the stressful nature of police work, the continuous demands that policewomen prove their loyalty to the group, and female officers' treatment as stereotypes rather than as individuals. Policewomen have developed two principal patterns of coping. One pattern emphasizes overachievement and conformity to rules and group norms in order to fulfill the requirements of the occupational role. The other pattern focuses on conformity to sex role norms, a decreased occupational commitment, and a resolve to obtain a nonpatrol assignment. Many policwomen adopt behavior that falls somewhere between these two extremes. Regardless of which behavior pattern a policewoman follows, she faces psychological pressure and often expends much energy attaining satisfactory relationships at work. Although excluded from situations where important learning occurs, she is under great pressure to perform and allowed less margin for error than her fellow male police officers. Because of these problems, many policewomen do not perform as well as male patrol officers. However, some women overcome the obstacles and perform as adequate or outstanding officers, regardless of the fact that they face choices, limitations, and problems as token women doing a 'man's job.' Only major alterations in occupational structures and culturally defined behavior patterns will eliminate such barriers. Tables, footnotes, photographs, an index, and approximately 220 references are included. Field research methods are appended.