“I Think It’s Still a Male-Dominated World”: Detachment Services Assistants’ Perceptions and Experiences of a Gendered Police Organization

Abstract

Police organizations, typically considered masculine paramilitary organizations, are employing increasing numbers of women in non-sworn roles. We investigate the experiences and perceptions of a specific group of non-sworn personnel, Detachment Services Assistants (DSAs) working with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, unpacking their perceptions of a slowly-changing gendered organizational culture. We analyze how their fluid performances of femininities allow them to navigate a gendered workplace environment that, at times, can marginalize them based on their gender and occupational status. The study makes a novel contribution to the policing literature on gender and the role of non-sworn personnel in policing.

Introduction

Police organizations are typically considered masculine paramilitary organizations that prize and reward displays of toughness, stoicism, and adherence to hierarchical leadership structures (Boogaard & Roggeband, 2010; Garcia, 2003; Loftus, 2008; Miller et al., 2003; O’Connor Shelley et al., 2011; Prokos & Padavic, 2002; Rabe-Hemp, 2008; 2009). As police services have increasingly relied on employees who are not sworn officers (usually, but not always, referred to as “civilian personnel”) to perform a variety of specialist roles (Crank, 1989; Dick & Metcalfe, 2001; Forst, 2000), divisions have emerged between these staff and sworn personnel—divisions that, in Canada at least, are exacerbated by the fact that, in contrast to the male-dominated ranks of sworn officers, most non-sworn personnel are women (Conor et al., 2020; Murray, 2021; Royal Canadian Mounted Police, 2022). Researchers have examined the experiences of women sworn personnel, including how they perform gender in response to the masculine organizational culture in which they work (Garcia, 2003; Haarr & Morash, 2013; Murray, 2021; O’Connor Shelley et al., 2011; Rabe-Hemp, 2008; 2009). However, few studies have considered the relationship between gender and non-sworn status in the occupational experiences of women working in non-sworn roles in police services (Boogaard & Roggeband, 2010; Loftus, 2008). In the current study, we address this lacunae in knowledge by examining the experiences and perceptions of a specific group of non-sworn personnel who work with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP): women Detachment Services Assistants (DSAs), who are hired as federal public servants (rather than civilian members) and perform a wide variety of roles within RCMP detachments or specialized units in support of police operations. Due to the fact that DSAs are not categorized as civilian members within the RCMP, in the current article we identify their employment status as “non-sworn personnel” rather than “civilian personnel;” however, given the nature of their work and their non-sworn status, we situate DSAs’ occupational duties and statuses within the broader context of police civilianization.

Our findings highlight how DSAs understand the culture of the RCMP to be gendered in ways that privilege performances of masculinities by sworn personnel, while marginalizing the workplace experiences and well-being of women public servants. Further, we show how DSAs perform femininities in response to these understandings in their workplace, and the negative workplace experiences it creates for them, which both reaffirm and challenge the gendered organizational culture. We pay particular attention to DSAs’ statements of ambiguity or ambivalence, highlighting how DSAs describe both a gendered RCMP culture that can be interpreted as harming some women DSAs and a slow shift within the organization toward more equitable treatment of women employees: civilian, public servant, and sworn. Few researchers have studied gender as experienced by non-sworn personnel in police services, and, to our knowledge, to date none have investigated this topic with public servants within the RCMP, despite these staff being instrumental to the functioning of the organization. As such, our study offers a unique insight into how women in this occupational group perceive and experience a gendered organizational culture within a specific police service.

Context

The RCMP is Canada’s national law enforcement agency, serving as both a federal police service and, under contract, providing local policing to hundreds of communities in Canada’s three territories and eight of its 10 provinces. The RCMP has two employment categories of non-sworn staff: civilian members, who are hired to perform specialized roles (e.g., forensics or information technology services); and public servants, who are federal government employees hired primarily to fulfil administrative roles. In addition to its more than 19,000 sworn members, the RCMP employs 3000 civilian members and 8300 public servants—meaning that public servants account for 27% of the organization’s workforce (RCMP, 2021). DSAs are public servants, and work primarily in the more than 700 RCMP detachments located in urban, suburban, rural, and remote locations across Canada. DSAs perform a diverse range of administrative duties in support of RCMP operations, including: being the first point of contact for the public at the front desk or on the telephone; undertaking criminal record checks; reviewing case files; entering and maintaining records in electronic databases; and, in some instances, communicating with officers in the field to update on developing situations. DSAs’ occupational responsibilities vary depending on the specific needs of police members within the detachment.

The RCMP, like many police services, is male-dominated in the sworn ranks. In 2021, just 22% of regular RCMP members were women; in contrast, 75% of public service employees were women (RCMP, 2022). In the past 15 years, several women RCMP members have spoken publicly and brought lawsuits against the organization, due to years of gender-based harassment and abuse (Mason, 2011). In 2016, a class action lawsuit led by two of these women (Janet Merlo and Linda Gillis Davidson) was settled and the RCMP was ordered to pay $100 million to compensate women officers and non-sworn staff who had been victims of abuse and harassment over a 40-year period. A 2020 report on the settlement concluded that:

The culture of the RCMP is toxic and tolerates misogynistic and homophobic attitudes amongst its leaders and members. This culture has resulted in incalculable damage to female members of the RCMP as well as those working for the public service. A change in the culture of the RCMP is essential (Bastarache, 2020, p. 1).

Given the organizational history of abuse and harassment toward women employees, and the fact that civilian and public servant employees may be marginalized within a hierarchical police culture, in the current article, we offer timely and necessary insight into how women DSAs understand and navigate the gendered culture and hierarchical structure of the RCMP. Although DSAs are classified as public servants, due to their duties and non-sworn status, we situate their occupational experiences within the literature on civilian personnel in police services, while remaining sensitive to the unique nature of being public servants working in police detachments.

Literature Review

Gender and Organizations

In unpacking how women DSAs perceive and experience a gendered work workplace, we follow West and Zimmerman’s (1987) influential definition of gender as an ongoing social performance that is “conduct [ed] in light of normative conceptions of attitudes and activities appropriate for one’s sex category” (p. 127). Scholars show that, in various cultural contexts, the construction of hegemonic masculinities and femininities creates social hierarchies that celebrate those who conform to these idealized performances of gender, while subordinating the majority of individuals who do not (or cannot) conform to these aspirational ideals (Connell, 2005; Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005; Messerschmidt, 2018). Although certain cultural contexts celebrate hegemonic femininities, the patriarchal social structures that underpin hegemonic constructions of gender mean that women are broadly subordinated within the gender hierarchy (Connell, 2005; Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005). These gender inequalities shape the experiences of women (as well as men who do not conform or successfully aspire to hegemonic ideals) within organizations, such as workplaces.

Unequal gender relations are produced and reproduced within organizations through “inequality regimes,” which can be understood as “loosely interrelated practices, processes, actions, and meanings that result in and maintain class, gender, and racial inequalities within particular organizations” (Acker, 2006, p. 443). While inequalities such as wage gaps and gendered hierarchies have been reduced in many organizations, in many contexts they persist and continue to marginalize women and other non-dominant groups (Acker, 2012). In organizations that privilege men and masculinities, women are seen as outsiders in a pre-existing gender order that is premised on assumptions about differences between the sexes; as such, they must navigate an ambiguous expectation to both conform to the masculine norms of the organization while performing a femininity that marks them as different (Gherardi & Poggio, 2001). Organizations that produce a culture that marginalizes or is hostile to women have been described as having a “chilly climate”—a term commonly used to identify women’s experiences of inequality, exclusion, and maltreatment within academic organizations (Hall & Sandler, 1982; Maranto & Griffin, 2011). We later return to the idea of women’s ambiguity in navigating male-dominate organizations and the concept of a “chilly climate” in unpacking DSAs understandings of the RCMP as a gendered organization.

Gendered Organizational Cultures in Police Services

North American police services are often described as hierarchical organizations, which “have long been characterized by a paramilitary style…[and] continue to be highly specialized, with complex divisions of labor, vertical authority structures, and extensive rule systems” (Chappell & Lanza-Kaduce, 2010, p. 188). Further, in diverse global settings, scholars have found that police organizations are constructed as masculine (and, often, heterosexual) organizations, which value behaviours culturally associated with masculinity (e.g., strength, stoicism, solidarity) and normalize policing as a man’s occupation (e.g., Angehrn et al., 2021; Boogaard & Roggeband, 2010; Garcia, 2003; Loftus, 2008; Miller et al., 2003; Murray, 2021; O’Connor Shelley et al., 2011; Prokos & Padavic, 2002; Rabe-Hemp, 2008, 2009).The paramilitary structures and masculine cultures of police services may be taught and internalized in officer training (Chappell & Lanza-Kaduce, 2010; Prokos & Padavic, 2002). Prokos and Padavic (2002), for example, found that male recruits in a United States police academy learned about police masculinities from a ‘hidden curriculum,’ which was “taught obliquely by teachers and students” and asserted the superiority of men over women, affirmed assumed biological differences between men and women, and, ultimately, constructed women as outsiders in police cultures (p. 440). Although there may be a need in policing for characteristics such as stoicism, as well as other traits or characteristics interpreted as masculine in nature, the literature suggests that these characteristics are prized at the expense of cultural traits understood as feminine.

The hierarchical and gendered nature of police services can negatively impact women employees. For instance, women, though accepted in the sworn ranks, may face barriers to promotion to leadership ranks (Rabe-Hemp, 2008). Non-heterosexual women officers may be further marginalized, where the relationship between their sexuality and gender doubly ostracize them within an organization that privileges performances of heterosexual masculinities (Miller et al., 2003). Women sworn personnel in various police services have also experienced a litany of harassing and abusive behaviours from men coworkers and superiors, such as demeaning language, sexual advances or innuendos, and sexual harassment (Brown et al., 2019; O’Connor Shelley et al., 2011; Prokos & Padavic, 2002; Rabe-Hemp, 2008). However, Rabe-Hemp (2008) cautions that the culture of police services has slowly shifted over time, and argues that “the vestiges of the ‘old boys club,’ reported in the early police subculture literature must be updated to incorporate recent studies that underscore the variety of value systems at work in the police culture” (p. 263). Similarly, recent studies have identified that the culture of some police services may be in “a state of flux… with some officers ready to change, where others are trying to hold on to their traditional gendered identities” (Brown et al., 2019, p. 131) or potentially experiencing the “slow erosion of paramilitary forms of management” (Murray, 2021, p. 106). As such, researchers should remain attuned to how modern police services may display both traditional masculine structures and shifts toward more gender equal cultures.

In response to the challenges and barriers arising from a gendered organizational culture, women police officers may adopt a variety of coping strategies. Haarr and Morash (2013) found that a sample of US-based women sworn personnel used a variety of strategies, such as ‘straight talk’ (i.e., directly confronting inappropriate behaviour), striving to demonstrate qualities that are valued in a masculine police service (e.g., toughness, physicality), or choosing not to confront discriminatory or harassing comments. Murray (2021) examined how some women senior officers take advantage of the paramilitary structure of a Canadian police service to navigate sexism, strategically asserting their power within the organizational hierarchy to ensure respectful behaviour and providing support and mentorship to other women within the service. Rabe-Hemp (2008; 2009) explained that women officers provide different ongoing performances of gender. Sometimes women may conform to an acceptable femininity by “accept [ing] segregation into the feminine, paperwork-dominated aspects of the job” (Rabe-Hemp, 2008, p. 259), a decision that can reaffirm the gendered organizational view of women as unfit for ‘real’ policing work (i.e., crime prevention). At other times, women seek acceptance by achieving a stereotypically masculine gender performance, such as participation in a violent incident or promotion to a respected high rank, yet have to continually re-earn recognition through their ongoing performances (Rabe-Hemp, 2008). O’Conner Shelley et al. (2011) similarly found that women officers may face pressures to (attempt to) integrate into the masculine policing culture or, alternatively, to conform to expectations of appropriate femininity—reflective of the ambiguity faced by women attempting to integrate into masculine organizations (Gherardi & Poggio, 2001). As such, in their struggle to gain employment, acceptance, and equitable treatment in police services, women’s ongoing performances of gender may reaffirm dominant organizational views of sex-based differences between males and females (Garcia, 2003; Rabe-Hemp, 2008; 2009).

Non-sworn Personnel and Status in Police Services

While the occupational experiences of women sworn personnel have received considerable academic scrutiny, non-sworn police services employees have received far less attention. A notable absence, given civilians and—in the RCMP—public servants are increasingly hired by police services to perform a variety of non-policing roles, such as administrative duties, dispatching, public relations, and technical tasks—a process termed “civilianization” (Crank, 1989; Dick & Metcalfe, 2001; Forst, 2000). Civilianization, which has been ongoing since at least the 1950s, was born out of a desire by police services to reduce the variety of tasks sworn personnel must undertake, lower staffing costs (as non-sworn staff are typically paid less than sworn personnel and require less training), and professionalize administrative, budgetary, and technical duties (Cope, 2004; Dick & Metcalfe, 2001; Forst, 2000; McCarty & Skogan, 2013). In all Canadian police services, the percentage of civilian employees rose from 18% in 1962 (when data were first collected) to 32%—amounting to nearly 27,000 employees—in 2019 (Conor et al., 2020). Further, these statistics show that females account for 71% of civilian personnel, with this figure rising to 91% when considering only civilian clerical staff (Conor et al., 2020).

Researchers find non-sworn personnel face barriers to inclusion within their workplaces. At the onset of civilianization, many sworn personnel perceived the process as a threat both to their job security and the paramilitary organizational culture that supported and rewarded performances of masculinities (Crank, 1989; Loftus, 2008). Scholars show police services can be characterized by divisions between non-sworn staff and sworn personnel, with the former feeling that they hold a lower status, are not fully included in the organization, or have their expertise disrespected or disregarded by sworn staff (Boogaard & Roggeband, 2010; Burke, 1995; Cope, 2004; Loftus, 2008; McCarty & Skogan, 2013). The result can be non-sworn personnel feeling like “second class citizens” (Burke, 1995, p. 3) and such perceptions of being unsupported or undervalued may contribute to increased stress and adverse mental health outcomes (Burke, 1995; McCarty & Skogan, 2013). Furthermore, where non-sworn personnel do not fit with the dominant gender or racial composition of the organization their perceived lesser status be exacerbated (Boogaard & Roggeband, 2010; Cope, 2004; Loftus, 2008). In the current study, we delve into the relationship between public servant status—which arguably places these employees even further on the margins of the dominant police culture—and gender within a police service, examining how DSAs understand the culture of the RCMP to be gendered and how they perform gender in response to their workplace environment.

Methods

In the current study, we used semi-structured interviews with DSAs to learn about their occupational experiences and challenges, their perceptions of the RCMP workplace, and the impacts of their work on their health and well-being. The Union for Safety and Justice Employees (USJE), which represent DSAs, funded the study. USJE also provided support with recruitment via an internal email listerv. The study received approval from Memorial University of Newfoundland (#20201029) and the RCMP’s HR Research Review Board. We interviewed individuals who were interested in participating, resulting in a sample of 54 DSAs.

Our semi-structured approach to interviews meant we developed and loosely followed an interview guide, asking open-ended questions and probing responses through follow-up questions, while allowing participants to guide the direction of the discussion and share information they deemed relevant. Although the focus of the broader study was on occupational experiences and mental health and well-being, we included a question on the interview guide that asked participants they how felt that their gender affected how they did their job or were perceived at work. However, in many instances, we did not need to ask this question, as participants of their own volition raised issues around a gendered workplace culture and their treatment, as women, by men colleagues.

All interviews were conducted on the telephone, due to the geographic spread of participants and public health guidance related to COVID-19, and lasted between 45–75 minutes. Research assistants transcribed interviews verbatim. The interviews were then coded in an open-ended manner by the authors, who worked collaboratively to identify and refine codes as themes emerged from the data. Our approach to data analysis followed a semi-grounded constructed approach (Charmaz, 2014; Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Ricciardelli et al., 2010), in which, while our theoretical interpretations emerged from our analysis of participants’ words, we acknowledge that our personal and scholarly biographies inform our interpretations.

Prior to being interviewed, participants completed a short demographic survey. All 54 participants (100%) self-identified as female and their ages were between 25 and 74 years old. In terms of race or ethnicity, the majority of participants (n = 49; 90.7%) identified as white, while the remainder (n = 5; 7.4%) identified as Indigenous or Latin American or opted not to identify their race or ethnicity. Most participants (n = 42; 77.8%) were working as DSAs at the time the interview was conducted, while the remainder (n = 12; 22.2%) were employed in supervisory or specialized administrative jobs (e.g., court liaison) within the RCMP. Participants had between two and 31 years of RCMP work experience, with the median years of employment being 13. Prior to their current employment, many participants had worked as a DSA in other detachments (n = 23; 42.6%) or in other roles or RCMP units (n = 27; 50.0%), giving participants a range of experiences within the RCMP. Participants worked in nine of Canada’s 10 provinces.

Limitations

We recognize that our methods have several limitations for gaining a comprehensive understanding of DSAs’ occupational experiences. First, by exclusively using telephone interviews, we did not engage in other forms of qualitative inquiry—such as in-person interviews or ethnographic research at detachments—that may have provided additional context to our findings. However, we somewhat offset this limitation via the research experience of the second author, which ensured that we had a degree of familiarity with both the organizational culture of the RCMP and the day-to-day work environment of RCMP detachments. Second, because participants self-selected, our sampling may not be representative of DSAs as a whole. Given the focus of the study on occupational mental health and well-being, we may have attracted participants who wished to share negative experiences of their workplace. Furthermore, while approximately 10% of DSAs are male, we were only able to recruit self-identified female participants. Future research that involves the experience of men or non-binary individuals working as DSAs would enable a more nuanced investigation of how gender and public servant status intersect to shape the workplace experiences of DSAs. Finally, while 54 interviews is a robust sample for an interview-based study, we recognize that our findings may not be generalizable beyond our sample. This limitation is exacerbated by the fact that there is great variation in both RCMP detachments and DSA duties in various rural/remote and urban locations across Canada, and that we had no participants from the province of Newfoundland and Labrador and just one from each of Manitoba and Québec. As such, we recommend that future researchers ensure a national sample that better captures the diversity of DSAs’ occupational experiences. Despite these limitations, we collected rich data on women DSAs’ occupational experiences and views, enabling us to unpack how they experience and navigate work as public servants within a police organization culturally read as masculine.

Findings

A “Boys’ Club”?: Perceptions of a Gendered Police Culture

Many DSAs identified the RCMP, broadly, or their specific workplace as a masculine environment, selecting terms such as “boys’ club,” “male-dominated,” or “man’s world” when describing the organization. By these terms, DSAs indicated that they, as women, were not fully integrated into the workplace culture and were outnumbered by male coworkers (usually referring to sworn officers). For example, P12 noted that DSAs “are mostly female here in this area, and law enforcement is sort of a male dominated area, for sure.” Similarly, P40 stated that “no matter how people try to change it, policing is a man’s world for the most part.” For some DSAs, being a woman in a male-dominated workplace led to a perception of a negative work environment or even contributed experiences of harassment and abuse. P06 stated that “the RCMP is a toxic environment” and followed up by explaining this toxicity is because “there is an incredible amount of testosterone in those detachments.” In this statement, P06 uses testosterone as a signifier for masculinity, while implying that there are natural differences between men and women that make a gender imbalanced workplace a negative space for some women. Meanwhile, P32 expressed the view that a gendered organizational culture enabled problematic masculine performances that marginalized female employees:

The RCMP is very still male-dominated…and some of the treatment clearly [sighing], kind of reflects that. Like, there’s still a boys’ club—not all of them, there’s some really good members too—[but] there’s definitely still a lot of that…. I’ve seen it all the way up to senior management…. Very disturbing…. I was quite perturbed by some of the things I heard out of our senior management at headquarters. Jokes that were made, and things like that. So yeah, I don’t particularly like being a woman in that environment.

P36 describes a masculine organizational culture that permits men, including senior managers, to perform masculinities that encourage fraternal bonding through the degradation of women—much like the performance of “locker room talk” found in some sport subcultures (Curry, 1991). In describing these experiences as “very disturbing” and “perturb [ing],” P36 highlights how these performances of masculinities can create a harmful “chilly climate” for women employees.

Other women DSAs described experiencing or witnessing behaviour from male coworkers that contributed to a “chilly climate” or, in only a small handful of cases, was verbally or physically abusive. P6 explained that, although as a DSA “you’re working with all women, your supervisors are men,” creating an uncomfortable environment for some women due to “the conversations, and the sexual overtones, and the cursing and swearing.” Beyond such “locker room talk,” and its contribution to a masculine workplace culture that marginalized women DSAs, a handful of participants described experiences of abuse or harassment from male sworn supervisors. For example, one participant (not identified or quoted for confidentiality purposes) described an emotionally abusive supervisor who routinely left her in tears, while another (P41) described being told by a sworn officer, in front of a group of members, to “turn around and go back into that little hole that you just crawled out of.” P11 described receiving belittling comments and even sexual assault from some men in her detachment:

I definitely had situations where it’s like are you for real? Yeah, don’t call me ‘girl.’ Don’t pat my ass. Don’t talk down to me. And again, it’s not that the majority of people were that way, because they weren’t. But there was the percentage that were that way and they were allowed to continue that way without recourse.

DSAs who were victims of abuse or harassment were clear in their belief that the gendered culture of their detachment helped facilitate these negative experiences and made them possible. P6, as noted, felt her exposure to discomforting talk was enabled by the fact that detachment supervisors were all men. The participant who described an emotionally abusive supervisor felt she could not speak up to defend herself because she would not be taken seriously due to her gender. And P11 noted that it was “generally male older members,” who helped establish and perpetuate the detachment culture, who accosted her.

For DSAs who felt marginalized by a masculine police culture, the feeling of being an outsider in their workplace could be exacerbated by their status as administrative support to sworn officers. For P19, the division was primarily gender-based: “I think there’s tons of gendered issues, particularly between police officers and administrative assistants, because police officers tend to all be male and the administrative assistants tend to be predominantly female.” However, other DSAs expressed the view that the relation between their gender and occupational role created subtle diminishment, such as a running joke in a detachment that female DSAs are “old school secretaries, [when in fact] the role is more than that” (P51) or a view that “the role at our detachment can be easily viewed…as a joking matter at times…[and] it can be a little demeaning” (P53). P42 elaborated on how the DSA role can be understood by some sworn officers in gendered ways:

[A DSA is] perceived as one of the gals or the ladies…. You know, the ladies are all leaving early today. That's kind of an old boys tradition with the RCMP, they're used to having the gals behind the desk.

These statements indicate that some women DSAs feel marginalized within the RCMP, due to the relationship between their gender and administrative role. However, not all DSAs described being a minority in their workplace as inherently detrimental or as creating a negative work environment. P12, for example, noted that “I have never felt uncomfortable being one of a handful of females in a predominately male environment.” And P16 stated that, although “we have not as many female members as males, I’ve never seen anything but respect from the membership to the other female members or to [DSAs]…. So we’ve come a long way.” As evidenced by the words of P12 and P16, some DSAs do not deny that men predominate in the RCMP, but do not link this gender imbalance to a negative workplace culture.

“Not So Much Now, But in the Past Definitely”: A Changing RCMP Culture?

P16’s statement that “we’ve come a long way,” is indicative of a widespread view among DSAs that, while the gendered culture of the RCMP can be problematic, the culture is improving with regard to harassment and abuse. For example, P14 stated: “nowadays, the stuff that the members got away with 15 years ago wouldn’t be tolerated. Like the way they’d treat a woman.” However, declarations about an improving organizational culture were often qualified or framed in somewhat ambivalent terms, leaving it unclear how DSAs viewed being a women administrative staff member in a masculine police organization. For example, P29 stated:

In a lot of ways the RCMP is still very, not necessarily misogynistic, but…there tends to be a little bit of a dynamic of, it’s not quite like the [19]50s, but there’s a little bit of that…thinking [that] ‘police officers are men and they’re strong and confident and they’re the protectors and the admins are secretaries of old and, you know, we’re ladies.’

In this statement, P35 expresses ambivalence about the extent the RCMP is becoming a more welcoming workplace for women in administrative positions. Although in her view the RCMP is “not necessarily misogynistic” and “not quite like the [19] 50 s” in terms of gender relations, implying that the organization is becoming more equitable, P29 explains that gender stereotypes and occupational status still marginalize women DSAs and push them into a peripheral status within the organization. When asked if her gender ever affected her experience at work, P35 similarly viewed a problematic organizational past as an indication that the RCMP was now a better place for women employees: “Not so much now, but in the past definitely. It was a whole different boys’ club feel to the detachment and it’s mainly not [now].” Her statement stops short of suggesting that the RCMP has become a welcoming environment for women DSAs, instead identifying the organizational culture as “mainly not” a challenging one for women.

Other DSAs discussed how the relationship between expected gender roles and their administrative position contributed to a subtle marginalization, rather than outright mistreatment, within their workplaces. P27, for example, expressed the view that women “are known to be able to multitask, and so I feel like a lot is given to me because I have that ability. Sometimes, it’s too much.” P27’s words suggest that male coworkers subscribe to an essentialized view that women are naturally able to juggle multiple tasks, and therefore can be overloaded with a variety of administrative duties. Meanwhile, P37 discussed how she felt marginalized, both as a woman within the broader masculine policing culture and a DSA within the ranks of diverse employees:

It’s still a male-dominated world. And I still see, not just for myself, even some of the female members, where your advice and guidance or isn’t wanted…. And clearly our salaries are held down. I would say 90% of the public servants with the RCMP are female. And we have the lower paying jobs. If there are [civilian member] males, they’re usually up in a technical area…. But [DSAs] are still pigeon-holed and down in that data entry, just ’cause we touch a keyboard.

Here, P37 explains in the “male-dominated world” of the RCMP, DSAs are doubly-marginalized, within both the policing culture and the non-sworn staff, for their gender and job position—suggesting that public servants, of whom over 90% are women, are beneath civilian members in the organizational hierarchy. P37’s views about DSA’s status compared to civilian members align with broader data on Canadian police services, which shows that women predominate among lower-status roles, yet are the minority within higher paying civilian roles such as IT services (Conor et al., 2020).

For some DSAs, seeing greater female representation among civilian, public servant, and sworn staff was reflected on as a positive sign indicating a shifting organizational culture, if still a qualified one. P11 stated that “I certainly have more female member [officer] coworkers now than I used to, so that’s a good thing.” However, she qualified her statement by adding “if you’re a female, you have to work harder and smarter to get to the same place as the not so dedicated males. So I think it is changing…[but] I do think that things are devalued because women are the ones doing the work.” P35 also saw rising numbers of women in the sworn ranks, and the acceptance of these women officers, as a sign of progress within the RCMP:

Most [RCMP members] are younger, and younger thinking, and more accepting of …female RCMP members. You know, we’ve had a few of those over the last while, and they’re very female looking as well. It’s not like they’re [trails off]. When you see them in civilian clothes, you definitely know they are a girl, right? With the jewelry, and makeup, and things of that nature. You don’t see that as much when they are in uniform.

P35 presents a view of the RCMP culture as more accepting of women in uniform, though suggests that these officers downplay stereotypical feminine appearances at work to fit in with the organizational culture. This statement puts forth, in P35’s experience, the RCMP has become more welcoming to women sworn officers as long as they do not overtly perform femininity through clothing, jewelry, or makeup—suggesting that the organizational culture still restricts the gender performances of women in uniform.

Despite a belief that the organizational culture was shifting, many DSAs felt the change of pace was not fast enough. P39, for example, stated that “the fact that every single one of our admin is female, and that we only have one female officer—I know that the RCMP is working towards shifting that, and I think they’re doing a good job, but it’s very apparent.” For participants like P39, the RCMP remains an organization in which public servant roles are filled by women and sworn personnel are predominantly men—meaning that efforts to change the gendered culture of the organization are slow to take hold. P41 similarly expressed optimism about cultural changes, while recognizing that a “chilly climate” still exists for some women:

It’s still there, that old boys club. People can deny it, they can say it doesn’t exist, but it does. And I’m saying that more so for members that have been there longer. If you have newer members, they’re actually a bit of fresh air…. So I think it will take 10–15 years before all those old boy clubs retire, and the new group of younger policing officers comes in [who] never really grew up with that mentality. Because it was so old school within the division. I have had things happen to me, or said to me, working there that definitely were said and done because I’m a woman. Like, if it had been a male, that they were that had done or said the same thing. They never would have said it to me ever.

As the words of P39 and P41 suggest, for many DSAs the RCMP’s culture, though slowly changing, remains one in which women—particularly serving in public servant roles—feel marginalized and excluded from sworn officers and RCMP culture.

“Like You’re Mother to Them All”: Performing Maternal Roles

In response to their perceptions of a masculine organizational culture, in which they were doubly marginalized by their gender and public servant status, women DSAs described diverse performances of femininities. For some DSAs, these performances involved performing maternal roles—characterized by culturally-read feminine actions such as caring, facilitating social experiences for others, and performing domestic chores—in support of male sworn personnel. In some instances, DSAs willingly and happily took on these roles. For example, P22 explained that she tried to make new male officers feel welcome in the community:

Some of these younger male officers come out of training and, I mean I’m only 35, but at the same time they see that I have kids, and [they see me] almost in more of a maternal way…. And I guess it goes back to me, because, say [it’s] Christmas or something, if they’re by themselves I’ll say ‘hey, you guys are welcome to join us [at our home].’

Here, P22 expresses a genuine interest in helping officers feel at home in their new communities by offering them hospitality. In so doing, she identifies that she performs a maternal role for these young officers, often male, who she believes also see her in this light. P38 also identified her job as entailing the performance of a maternal role. For this participant, her job “is like you’re mother to them all [the sworn members]…. We’re just kind of overseeing everything, whereas the members are focused on the job, the criminal code, their team.” Here, P38 describes her job as “mothering,” as her job involves organizational and communication skills that are culturally associated with femininity, which frees the sworn personnel to be “focused on the job” of policing—that is, a job that is typically understood as highly masculine.

In some cases, DSAs’ discussed performing a maternal role in a way that also essentialized male sworn officers as intense and motivated individuals who thus lacked softer (i.e., understood as feminine) skills. P51 explained that in police work, “it’s a certain personality that does these jobs—'type A,’ kind of thing.” P40, meanwhile, implicitly described herself in motherly terms by comparing sworn officers’ to disorganized children:

[The most challenging part of the job is] working with the members. Trying to keep them organized. They are a very different breed of animal. I think of my job as I herd cats for a living, because they are scattered, and they’re big children really. They really are. Like they’re just so disorganized, and they’re thought process is all over the place and they’re scattered. It’s frustrating sometimes just trying to keep them on task.

For DSAs who adopt a motherly persona, then, this gender performance occurs in tandem with a naturalizing of differences between women and men and the affirmation of the masculine construction of the organization.

While DSAs such as P22 and P38 see their performance of maternal roles in a positive light—either because such performances are a genuine gesture of kindness or because they enable sworn personnel to better perform their policing duties—others felt that they were pressured into undertaking similar tasks due to the gendered organizational culture of the detachment. Several participants described an expectation that they would organize a staff party or perform various domestic duties within the detachment, all of which are tasks beyond their job description. P43, for example, said if “they’re gonna have a Christmas party and it was almost like taken for granted that, like, ‘oh, aren’t you gonna plan it?’… Like, we’re females [and are] just expected to take care of that type of organization, planning tasks.” P32 further elaborated:

There’s so many things we’re expected to do, and I think it’s because we’re female. Like, if they ever want to have a Christmas party…we’re supposed to organize it, we’re the ones that bring the dishtowels home to wash them at our own houses, or do the dishes that are left in the sink ’cause nobody else bothers to do them. Keep up the lunchroom in general, keep the detachment tidy—these traditionally female roles, they fall to us even though those are not in our job description …. I’m just like ‘no, that’s not my job, and just ’cause I’m a girl does not mean I wanna entertain, and fricking find a caterer.’… But I think they just assume… ‘well, you’re a woman, so surely you must love that.’

In these instances, women DSAs felt pressure within the detachment to take on maternal roles, such as party planning or cleaning, to facilitate positive social experiences for their men coworkers. In other cases, DSAs described being assigned certain tasks that are seen, in a gendered way, as beneath the role of sworn personnel. For example, P32 explained that:

[A woman] had an 18-month old baby with her…. She had no one to watch her baby, and so we had to babysit her baby while she gave her statement. [I’m] happy to help her out, obviously, but [it is] not something that you expect in your day to day…. I feel like if we had been male that wouldn’t have been asked of us.

As P32 explains, female DSAs may be expected to perform traditionally feminine roles, such as babysitting the children of victims, within a detachment. This expectation is similar to those historically placed on women sworn personnel, who gained acceptance within police services by performing social work-like roles in cases involving women or children (Garcia, 2003). Similarly, while other DSAs did not always explicitly label their work as involving maternal aspects, many did speak about displaying stereotypically feminine roles toward sworn personnel—such as caring, nurturing, communicating, and expressing emotion—as part of their work. Like female police officers who conform to expected femininity to succeed, or at least survive, within masculine police cultures, these DSAs perform gender in a manner than reaffirmed the values and norms of the masculine organizational culture within which they work.

“I Don’t Put up With Any Bullshit”: Assertive Gender Performances

Whereas some women DSAs embraced a stereotypically feminine gender performance in their workplace, others described navigating the gendered culture by displaying traits typically culturally read as masculine—such as assertiveness and a willingness to push back against demeaning behaviour. P03, for example, stated: “I’m head strong and wouldn’t take any disrespect from anyone…. I let it be known (laughter).” P03’s description of “let [ting] it be known” that she would not tolerate mistreatment was seen in other DSAs statements. P34 stated that, while she had seen other women being mistreated in her workplace, she had not such experiences because “I’m a fairly assertive person, and I don’t put up with any bullshit, and I think that comes across (laughter).” These participants describe a performance of gender, typically associated with masculinities, that incorporates an assertiveness and willingness to push back against perceived slights—a strategy, used by some women police officers to navigate workplace harassment, which Haarr and Morash (2013) label ‘straight talk.’ To survive in a masculine policing workplace P40 suggested a need for such a performance of gender:

I’m a pretty tough person, and I think that just comes with the work…. You don’t want to appear that you’re weaker, you don’t want show a lot of emotion, because they do kind of [trails off]. I’ve had a [sworn] member, one of the male members, he and I were having a disagreement, and he told me to calm down. And he’s like ‘oh, just calm down [name],” and that made me so mad. I was like ‘do not talk to me like that, never say that.’

Through these descriptions, some DSAs indicate they attempt to insulate themselves against abuse or harassment from men in their workplace through performances of gender premised on being assertive and pushing back against belittlement—challenging, through their adoption of typically masculine characteristics, the perception that they may passively accept such treatment.

While some DSAs felt they could confront directly problematic behaviours, others expressed an ambiguity about how to navigate less overt forms of mistreatment within a gendered organization. P46 stated that she has heard gendered comments from male sworn personnel that are “subtle” but discuss “stuff that’s just not appropriate for a work setting…and about others or certain topics where, I [think], you wouldn’t say that, but yet for some reason, I don’t know, within the RCMP it’s become normalized.” In response, P46 explained “I just kind of, I guess, suck it up, or just kind of ignore it, or laugh it off…[but]it’s just a very awkward situation to be in, for sure.” Here, P46 describes discomfort about her gendered workplace that she copes with by attempting to ignore problematic behaviours. Meanwhile, P51 stated:

I haven’t really ever felt victimized as a female, per se. Sure, the odd weird person—’cause there’s weird people everywhere in every organization, they’ll make a weird comment—or I had a detachment commander just say something weird, and I’m just like ‘not appropriate.’ But it’s not something that I would go report upstairs, ’cause people say stupid things every day. As long as there was no intent…to be creepy or weird—but I hear lots of things said between other people that (trails off). It’s not just to me, and it’s not every day, and it’s never, like.… I never felt like a victim, we’ll put it that way.

P51’s statement suggest an uneasiness with “weird” behaviour and comments from male coworkers, actions that may not directly be harassing or belittling (“not something that I would go report upstairs”) yet clearly impact her comfort in her workplace. P51 does not identify these actions as intentionally targeting her and does not believe herself to be a victim, yet she describes a discomfort that arises from such interactions. In these ambiguous situations, women DSAs may experience a similar contradiction to that of women officers in police services (O’Connor Shelley et al., 2011; Rabe-Hemp, 2008; 2009): not wanting to passively accept inappropriate treatment, and thus reaffirming women’s subordinate position within a gendered organization, yet risking ostracization if they respond assertively to comments or behaviours that are not directly harassing or abusive.

Discussion and Conclusion

Given the masculine-dominated policing environment, it remains unsurprising that women within the RCMP, whether in sworn or non-sworn roles, feel marginalized in some detachments. DSAs are increasingly specialized in their occupational responsibilities, taking on diverse roles within police services that can range from covering the front desk to helping to oversee an emergency response team. Recognizing the lack of scholarly emphasis on women non-sworn personnel, we interrogated DSAs’ gendered experiences working in detachments. We highlight how DSAs understand the gendered occupational culture of the RCMP–considering it laced with potential for harassment and marginalization of women–and how the environment affects DSAs’ well-being, as well as their performance of femininities and masculinities.

DSAs in our study described the RCMP culture as masculine or male-dominated. They recognized that cultural change takes time and is only possible in slow incremental steps, and expressed ambivalence about the extent to which the RCMP is becoming a comfortable environment for women employees. The masculine culture in policing is, in some ways, necessitated by occupational nuances, as there is a need for police officers to remain stoic and calm when facing adversity—characteristics that can be interpreted as masculine. Among DSAs there is a wider range of acceptable performances of gender, but there are also moments requiring stoicism. Thus, gender presentations emerge that cross between being empowered and stoic, and being understanding and communicative, much like the requirements of police when responding to the public. Such presentations, however, need not fall on a hierarchy that privileges certain behaviours over others and ties those behaviours to gendered understandings. For instance, why are DSAs tasked with child-minding when people enter the detachment with children or expected to perform domestic duties within the detachment? Moreover, what does it mean in terms of gendered understandings that DSAs are women who are then given such traditionally feminized tasks? Part of “undoing” gender, then, must involve not allocating traditionally feminized tasks to women in police services – civilian or uniform.

Part of these changes also require greater appreciation of gendered appearances at work – particularly the discouragement of expressions of explicit or overt femininity. Overt femininity should not be interpreted as (potentially) sexualized or unprofessional, which means it should be welcomed and accepted, rather than devalued or suggestive of incompetence or different motives. Also, here emerges the position of select DSAs who, if they engage in behaviours culturally read as masculine—such as being assertive, not tolerating mistreatment, or not putting up any “bullshit”—feel more respected in their occupational role. Thus, some DSAs do perform gender in masculinized ways and reduce the feminized performance of gender, with the purpose of insulating themselves from potential mistreatment. Others attempted to avoid problematic behaviours, and thus conflict, recognizing some mistreatment is normalized within the RCMP. Through these performances of femininities, DSAs used some similar strategies—namely ‘straight talk’ or ignoring/tolerating problematic behaviours—as some women sworn personnel to navigate a masculine workplace culture (Haarr & Morash, 2013). That such strategies are necessary points to the, thus far, intractable nature of how many police organizations are gendered. Ultimately, organizational cultures must change for women employees, including DSAs or other non-sworn staff, to comfortably present as the person they are, feel respected and valued, and know their contribution to policing operations is recognized.

The privileging of status must recognize the nuance of the DSA versus sworn member occupational role and work to omit the hierarchical interpretations tied to occupational position. Civilianization in policing (Crank, 1989; Dick & Metcalfe, 2001) remains ongoing, and it is likely that DSAs will be increasingly required to take on more responsibilities previously under the purview of sworn members. In doing so, there is a need to continue to support gender equity and to ensure that women in DSA roles feel respected and are in an environment free from harassment or marginalization.

Organizations can and do reproduce gender inequalities (Acker, 2006; 2012). With DSAs, hiring practices may be inadvertently reproducing gendered spaces through their hiring of women into such roles, evidenced in the overrepresentation of women as DSAs. Our sample of DSAs was entirely self-identifying women speaking to their experiences, largely, working with other women DSAs across RCMP detachments in Canada. Thus, to oppose a “chilly climate” (Hall & Sandler, 1982; Maranto & Griffin, 2011), there needs to be more equity in gender hires and understanding of roles that extend beyond a gendered lens—while simultaneously not relying on representation alone to change a gendered organizational culture. Other needs for creating a more gender-inclusive environment include ending the performance of “locker room talk” or more blatant expressions of harm directed toward women DSAs. Although harassment was not common in our sample, it was present among a select few of our participants; and, as the Merlo Davidson lawsuit and report demonstrated, some women in sworn and non-sworn roles have experienced harassment and abuse from men within the RCMP (Bastarache, 2020). Any presence of harassment is too much and needs resolution.

DSAs who had experienced negative interactions with other members of the RCMP spoke to the role of the masculine culture in encouraging or, at minimum, not preventing such behaviours. Many felt belittled at times or disrespected and marginalized, with some being made to feel inferior to sworn members. The status positioning of DSA as below sworn personnel, and even civilian members, also leaves DSAs susceptible to problematic behaviours because they occupy the lower rungs of the organizational hierarchy. For DSAs, the relationship of their gender to their occupational position as public servants can create feelings of marginalization. However, this was not the case for all DSAs, many of whom appreciated their positioning with the organization and did not feel marginalized. Indeed, some DSAs took pride in their relationship with members as being “maternal” or familial. Here, the gender imbalance prevailed, but it was not problematic. Instead, the gender imbalance shaped relationships and at times in healthy and comfortable ways, creating a sense of family and support. Interestingly, some DSAs took on the support role, which is culturally a feminized position.

Most DSAs who reported negative experiences arising from their masculine workplace culture nonetheless recognized that the organizational culture within the RCMP is slowly changing toward being more gender inclusive and reducing harassment and abuse, while expressing the view that this change is occurring slowly and unevenly. Moreover, they felt most changes were directed at sworn members rather than the culture in the detachments as experienced by DSAs. Although some reported having their professional position ridiculed or spoken of dismissively, such positioning was largely described as historic and the “old boys’ club” was described as losing some of its masculine nature. That said, the ambivalence about organizational change expressed by DSAs suggests that contemporary gender performances by men sworn personnel may still create discomfort or a “chilly climate” for women staff, even if these performances are less overtly problematic than in the past. Helping a slow cultural shift, in the view of DSAs, is the greater number of women being recruited into the RCMP and the slow and steady promotion of women into senior management roles. DSAs generally felt confident in the organizational changes and believed there were more positive shifts to follow, yet they also felt much could still be improved in terms of gender equity, mistreatment, and the marginalization of women working in non-sworn positions. These findings align with Rabe-Hemp’s (2008) assertion that “the vestiges of the ‘old boys club,’ reported in the early police subculture literature must be updated to incorporate recent studies that underscore the variety of value systems at work in the police culture” (p. 263; see also Brown et al., 2019; Murray, 2021). Our study provides such an update, but shifts the focus from women sworn officers to women working in lower-status non-sworn positions.

However, the question than arises of what is the ideal relationship between DSAs and sworn members? How should this relationship look, how should it be informed by gender, status and occupational positioning, and how is the RCMP to achieve this relationship? DSAs require recognition in their own right: they are not police nor first responders, but they are public safety personnel and have a role in the protection of public safety. Careful consideration of how the relationship should develop is necessary to improve organizational culture within the RCMP, perhaps extending the welcome increasingly offered to women sworn officers to DSAs.