Woman In Policing

In 1910, a Los Angeles social worker named Alice Stebbins Wells became the country's first full-fledged female police officer. In the years after, women served mostly as radio dispatchers, matrons, and social workers for juveniles and female prison inmates. Not until 1968 did Indianapolis become the first force in the country to assign a woman to full-time field patrol. Since then, the numbers of women in policing have raised steadily, thanks largely to changes in federal antidiscrimination/sexist laws. Resistance toward women cops stems in part from the fact that they are still relative newcomers to the beat. Law enforcement, which had been primarily a male occupation, has become a career consideration for women, and the number of women in the field has increased considerably during the past more than 20 years. One stressor that women uniquely experience is discrimination in the hiring of female police personnel.

For example, many height and weight requirements are discriminatory and may have been specifically instituted to prevent women from entering police ranks reported cases in Alabama and Maryland in which these standards were intentionally set to effectively exclude 81 % of females of ages 18-34 because administrative personnel did not believe women should be police officers. However, he also suggested that the creation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, the Crime Control Act of 1973, and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1974 have helped decrease discrimination.

Once hired, however, women may have their effectiveness on the job called into question. Weisheit’s research (1987) with female and male state police officers supported results of previous studies in suggesting that resistance to hiring female officers is not based on objective field performance but on the reluctance of male officers to accept female offices as equals. Although some gender differences in performance do exist, women perform adequately overall Despite such evidence, female officers are less likely to receive patrol assignments or administrative positions

Women police officers have also been found to be slightly less aggressive, and are less willing to make an arrest when compared with their male counterparts. However, the arrests that they do make tend to hold up comparable well in court (Koenig, 1978). Women appear no more likely to call in for support or assistance and have been found to be as capable as male officers when dealing with violent or angry members of the public (Grennan, 1987).

Empirical evidence suggests that female officers have an advantage in dangerous situations because their demeanor is generally less threatening (Sherman, 1975) and that they are more likely to calm a potentially violent situation and avoid injury to all of the participants (Grennan, 1987).

However, acceptance of women on patrol appears to be more forthcoming from the public (Koenig, 1978) than from fellow male co-workers (Koenig, 1978). Feelings of isolation and perceived hostility from co-workers have been suggested s potential problems for the female officer (Wexler & Logan, 1983).

Davis (1984) suggested that female and male officers do not differ in their experience of work-related stress; greater that 50 % of both sexes fall into the high-stress response category. However, compared with men, women identified danger significantly more often s a major stressor. Women also tend to feel less self-confident as officers than do their male co-workers; however, they view themselves as no less effective in their work (Davis, 1984). In another study of female police personnel, Pendergrass and Ostrove (1984) found higher levels of physiological stress consequences in females than in their male counterparts.

Women police officers also expressed more concern with personal safety issue. Although the potential stressors for female officers may differ from those for male officers, gender comparisons in job satisfaction have not specifically been considered.

Although women in law enforcement may eventually benefit from the increased self-esteem and fulfillment that often accompanies advancement, they may also encounter increased pressure to perform and to compete and, as a result, may suffer significant occupational stress.

They are subject to the same environmental stressors as their male counterparts, and they may not be viewed as competent by their male peers and may experience considerable role conflict and job ambiguity.

A growing emphasis on other skills, especially communication, comes from a movement in many police departments away from traditional law enforcement into a community-oriented role. In major cities such as New York, Houston and Kansas City, the mark of a good officer is no longer simply responding to distress calls but working in partnership with citizens and local merchants to head off crime and improve the quality of life in neighborhoods. Police cooperation and a willingness to report domestic abuse and sexual assaults are all up. If a person is arrested, there is more of a feeling that he will be treated right instead of getting beat up in the elevator. (Brown, 1994)

Hers is a far cry from the in-your-face style that has been the hallmark of mostly male police forces for years. But while women constitute only 9% of the nation s 523,262 police officers, they are bringing a distinctly different, and valuable, set of skills to the streets and the station house that may change the way the police are perceived in the community. Only on television is police work largely about high speed heroics and gunfights in alleys. Experts estimate that 90% of an officer’s day involves talking to citizens, doing paperwork and handling public relations. Many cops retire after sterling careers never having drawn their gun.

As the job description expands beyond crime fighting into community service, the growing presence of women may help burnish the tarnished image of police officers, improve community relations and foster a more flexible, and less violent, approach to keeping the peace. The main requirements for policing are considerable communication, diplomacy, intelligence and compassion. It is found that policing appears to be a natural match for women because they rely on intellectual prowess rather than on physical prowess. (Daum & Johns, 1994)

Los Angeles Police Department and Rise of Gender Bias

Such traits sake on new value in police departments that have come under fire for the brutal treatment of suspects in their custody. The videotaped beating of motorist Rodney King by four Los Angeles cops threw a spotlight on the use of excessive force by police. The number of reports continues to remain high across the country after the furor that followed that