NCJ Number
123749
Journal
Women and Criminal Justice Volume: 1 Issue: 2 Dated: (1990) Pages: 3-30
Date Published
1990
Length
28 pages
Annotation
This article reviews role theory and socialist feminist approaches to explaining male opposition to women in traditional occupations; it then introduces the interpretative approach and explores male resistance to women in a large, urban department.
Abstract
The author collected the data in the late 1970s while observing 200 male and female police rookies; the women represented the first female uniformed officers instituted in this department as a result of a discrimination suit. The primary sources of field data were patrol time spent with the rookies, extracurricular police functions, interviews, and follow-up observations. This article maintains that police officers construct their worlds in terms of oppositional symbols mediated by gender. Men's sexist attitudes and behaviors toward female officers derived from these cultural oppositions in ways including rank and file perspectives, sexual exposure, exposure of police use of extralegal force, exposure of corruption, and management perspectives. In departments where corruption and brutality exist and where relations between administrators and lower ranks are strained, male officers tend to resist the integration of women or try to neutralize their power in order to reinforce male bonds, reduce the risk of exposure, and retain their integrity as men and officers within the organizations. 11 notes, 51 references. (Author abstract modified)