Women in Policing: Their Disillusion Phase at Work

Abstract

Studies on the career paths of municipal police officers have revealed an emergence of four distinct phases which officers pass through during their professional careers, phases where the perception of their profession changes. These phases are more constant at the patrol officer level where most officers begin and finish their career. Among these four phases is the disillusion phase (between 6 and 13 years), where the expectations at work are not met. The perception of the police administration, the public and the criminal justice system, all become negative and the hope for promotions diminish. These studies were mainly conducted in a period where there were very few or no women in policing. Through a feminist perspective and a social constructionist theoretical framework, this thesis makes the hypothesis that because women have different expectations at work, a varying work/life balance and a contrasting aspiration to attain positions of power, women will live this second phase differently. To explore this hypothesis, data was collected from ten semi-structured interviews with female patrol officers having worked between 6 and 13 years in municipal police departments. A discourse analysis effectively shows significant differences for the reasons underlying our hypotheses. Even if they have some frustrations about certain aspects of their work, we did not see any disillusionment from any women in this phase.