Cara Rabe-Hemp
Professor of Criminal Justice, Illinois State University
Key Findings
- Women reported they brought more skills, empathy, and communication to policing as well as less forceful behaviors to their departments.
- Female officers also reported serving women, children, and victimized individuals better than their male counterparts but felt devalued in their work as it wasn’t considered “real police work.”
- Female officers also reported that citizens see them as officers before women partly due to the uniform.
- A minority of women officers noted that gender was notable to the citizens they interacted with especially in terms of their femininity and sexuality.
- Female officers integrate both aspects of “police,” and “woman,” in their daily work.
Description
In the article, “POLICEwomen or PoliceWOMEN? Doing Gender and Police Work,” Rabe-Hemp examines the toll that working in a male-dominant industry has on women’s sense of professionalism and their femininity. This is important to understand in order to allow equality in a diversifying industry. To conduct her study, Rabe-Hemp interviewed 38 female officers of varying positions in their department ranging from chief and commander to corporal and detective. Rabe-Hemp used a snowball sampling method where participants recommended others to participate. Questions ranged from asking about self-identity to their policing approach compared to their male counterparts. The results showed that women reported they brought more skills, empathy, and communication to policing as well as less forceful behaviors to their departments. The female officers also reported serving women, children, and victimized individuals better than their male counterparts but felt devalued in their work as it wasn’t considered “real police work.” Female officers also reported that citizens see them as officers before women partly due to the uniform. A strong minority of women officers noted that gender was notable to the citizens they interacted with especially in terms of their femininity and sexuality. Rabe-Hemp concludes that female officers integrate both aspects of “police,” and “woman,” in their daily work.