Attracting and Retaining Females in Law Enforcement: Sex-Based Problems of Women Cops in 1988

Abstract

The author, in cooperation with a number of Police Officer Standards and Training Academies in the West surveyed over 500 women concerning the reasons they were drawn into police work, as well as the reasons they have remained in police work. Further, the women were asked to identify sex-based problems they encounter in police work in an effort to validate other existing evidence. The study is provocative in that what attracts women into law enforcement careers are more traditional than was supposed. Open sexual harassment and sex discrimination was much more common than supposed-particularly by supervisors and command who not only tolerated suchpractices by others, but were frequently themselves prone to such illegal behaviors. Lastly, P.O. S. T. academies need to understand these problems and do some re-design of core curricula. Most of the women surveyed like being a cop, and enjoyed police work.