NCJ Number
218513
Journal
Howard Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 46 Issue: 2 Dated: May 2007 Pages: 145-161
Date Published
May 2007
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This article provides a gendered analysis of the structural reorganization of the Probation Service in England and Wales.
Abstract
The main argument is that the gender composition of the Probation Service in England and Wales has changed dramatically during the past decade and such a shift can be analyzed from a gendered point of view. The tensions between the equal opportunities agenda and the central government’s attempts to bring the Probation Service back into a more masculinized framework is highlighted as a significant factor in the continuing changes impacting the Probation Service. Organizational processes are central to understanding gender relations and that it is possible to view the organization itself as gendered. By viewing the organization itself as gendered, many questions are able to be posed about the processes and structures that have previously been seen as gender-neutral. The analysis focused on the recent changing gender composition of the Probation Services across all levels of the organization. In most organizations segregation by gender tends to become fixed, and this was certainly the case with the Probation Service in the past, when female probation officers worked mainly with women and children. Indeed, throughout most of the 20th century, the Probation Service developed in mainly masculine ways, with the majority of probation officers at all levels being male. Between 1950 and 1980, the composition of the Probation Service was roughly two-thirds male and one-third female. However, over the past decade, the Probation Service experienced a period of uncertainly and turbulence that resulted in a major change in the gender composition of the organization. Some of the factors contributing to this gendered change were new training requirements and the increasing recruitment and promotion of female officers. By the mid-1990s, the Probation Service had experienced a definite shift toward a “feminized” service. Gendered relations between staff within the organization also underwent major shifts as probation policy and practice changed. Figures, notes, references