HerStories: Lived Experiences of the Impacts of Policing on ‘Policemoms’ in Trinidad and Tobago

Abstract

Internationally, studies on women in policing have paid little attention to the lived experiences of policewomen who are mothers or ‘policemoms’. In a similar vein to international scholarship, research in the Caribbean on policewomen who are mothers is noticeably scarce. As a result of this gap, the current research effort was conducted to gain a deeper understanding of the lived experiences of policewomen in Trinidad and Tobago who are mothers. Guided by critical conceptualization of the masculine nature of policing, this qualitative study, using transcendental phenomenology, focused on the impacts of policing on policewomen who are mothers and employed in the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service. The study is premised on the notion that women police officers in Trinidad and Tobago who are mothers may not have the same external support system (nannies) that is common in the developed world. Data from 112 participants were used to answer five research questions and to seek out frequently occurring themes. The results indicate a host of negative lived experiences, challenges faced, and coping mechanisms used by the participants. Five themes were gleaned from the data analysis, and these are presented and discussed.