Sex-Role Operations - Strategies for Women Working in the Criminal Justice System (From Judge Lawyer Victim Thief, P 341-358, 1982, Nicole Hahn Rafter and Elizabeth Anne Stanko, ed. - See NCJ-85486)

• NCJ Number: 85498
• Author(s): P J Baunach; N H Rafter
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 18 pages
• Sale Source: Northeastern University Press
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study identifies problems common to women working in various parts of the criminal justice system and strategies they have developed to cope with the difficulties of moving into predominantly male professions.

Abstract

This discussion is based on a symposium held in Boston in 1979 which brought together five women working in various criminal justice specialties to discuss sex-specific problems they encountered on the job and means they had devised to deal with them. Points raised by the symposium participants and amplified by literature on women as criminal justice professionals indicate that a central issue for women is gaining credibility with male colleagues so as to be placed in positions of authority. Factors that militate against success in this endeavor are 'preferential' treatment, the superior performance required to prove themselves adequate, a seemingly impenetrable 'old boys' network, and stereotypes about the suitability of women for specific types of jobs. In attempting to overcome these obstacles, symposium participants agreed that the demonstration of competence is one of the primary ways to gain acceptance. This can only occur as (1) men do not offer special favors to 'protect' female colleagues; (2) performance standards are the same for both sexes; (3) men welcome women to the inner circles of information sharing and decisionmaking; and (4) both sexes question assumptions about what work women can and cannot do. Twenty-five notes are listed. (Author summary modified)