In 1910, a Los Angeles social worker named Alice Stebbins Wells became the country's first full-fledged female police officer. In the years after, women served mostly as radio dispatchers, matrons, and social workers for juveniles and female prison inmates.

Not until 1968 did Indianapolis become the first force in the country to assign a woman to full-time field patrol. Since then, the numbers of women in policing have raised steadily, thanks largely to changes in federal antidiscrimination laws. Resistance toward women cops stems in part from the fact that they are still relative newcomers to the beat.

Law enforcement, which had been primarily a male occupation, has become a career consideration for women, and the number of women in the field has increased considerably during the past more than 20 years. One stressor that women uniquely experience is discrimination in the hiring of female police personnel.

For example, many height and weight requirements are discriminatory and may have been specifically instituted to prevent women from entering police ranks (Potts, 1983). Potts (1983) reported cases in Alabama and Maryland in which these standards were intentionally set to effectively exclude 81 % of females of ages 18-34 because administrative personnel did not believe women should be police officers. However, he also suggested that the creation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, the Crime Control Act of 1973, and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1974 have helped decrease discrimination.

Once hired, however, women may have their effectiveness on the job called into question. Weisheit’s research (1987) with female and male state police officers supported results of previous studies in suggesting that resistance to hiring female officers is not based on objective field performance but on the reluctance of male officers to accept female offices as equals. Although some gender differences in performance do exist, women perform adequately overall (Sherman, 1975). Despite such evidence, female officers are less likely to receive patrol assignments or administrative positions (Lehtinen, 1976).

Women police officers have also been found to be slightly less likely to make an arrest as compared with their male counterparts. However, the arrests that they do make tend to hold up comparable well in court (Koenig, 1978). Women appear no more likely to call in for support or assistance and have been found to be as capable as male officers when dealing with violent or angry members of the public (Grennan, 1987).

Empirical evidence suggests that female officers have an advantage in dangerous situations because their demeanor is generally less threatening (Sherman, 1975) and that they are more likely to calm a potentially violent situation and avoid injury to all of the participants (Grennan, 1987).

However, acceptance of women on patrol appears to be more forthcoming from the public (Koenig, 1978) than from fellow male co-workers (Koenig, 1978). Feelings of isolation and perceived hostility from co-workers have been suggested s potential problems for the female officer (Wexler & Logan, 1983).

Davis (1984) suggested that female and male officers do not differ in their experience of work-related stress; greater that 50 % of both sexes fall into the high-stress response category. However, compared with men, women identified danger significantly more often s a major stressor. Women also tend to feel less self-confident as officers than do their male co-workers; however, they view themselves as no less effective in their work (Davis, 1984). In another study of female police personnel, Pendergrass and Ostrove (1984) found higher levels of physiological stress consequences in females than in their male counterparts.

Women police officers also expressed more concern with personal safety issue. Although the potential stressors for female officers may differ from those for male officers, gender comparisons in job satisfaction have not specifically been considered.

Although women in law enforcement may eventually benefit from the increased self-esteem and fulfillment that often accompanies advancement, they may also encounter increased pressure to perform and to compete and, as a result, may suffer significant occupational stress.

They are subject to the same environmental stressors as their male counterparts, and they may not be viewed as competent by their male peers and may experience considerable role conflict and job ambiguity.

A growing emphasis on other skills, especially communication, comes from a movement in many police departments away from traditional law enforcement into a community-oriented role. In major cities such as New York, Houston and Kansas City, the mark of a good officer is no longer simply responding to distress calls but working in partnership with citizens and local merchants to head off crime and improve the quality of life in neighborhoods. Police cooperation and a willingness to report domestic abuse and sexual assaults are all up. If a person is arrested, there is more of a feeling that he will be treated right instead of getting beat up in the elevator. (Brown, 1994)

Hers is a far cry from the in-your-face style that has been the hallmark of mostly male police forces for years. But while women constitute only 9% of the nation s 523,262 police officers, they are bringing a distinctly different, and valuable, set of skills to the streets and the station house that may change the way the police are perceived in the community. Only on television is police work largely about high speed heroics and gunfights in alleys. Experts estimate that 90% of an officer’s day involves talking to citizens, doing paperwork and handling public relations. Many cops retire after sterling careers never having drawn their gun.

As the job description expands beyond crime fighting into community service, the growing presence of women may help burnish the tarnished image of police officers, improve community relations and foster a more flexible, and less violent, approach to keeping the peace. The main requirements for policing are considerable communication, diplomacy, intelligence and compassion. It is found that policing appears to be a natural match for women because they rely on intellectual prowess rather than on physical prowess. (Daum & Johns, 1994)

Los Angeles Police Department and Rise of Gender Bias

Such traits sake on new value in police departments that have come under fire for the brutal treatment of suspects in their custody. The videotaped beating of motorist Rodney King by four Los Angeles cops threw a spotlight on the use of excessive force by police. The number of reports continues to remain high across the country after the furor that followed that attack. Female officers have been conspicuously absent from these charges: the independent Christopher commission.

Which investigated the L.A.P.D. in the aftermath of the King beating; found that the 120 officers with the most use-of-force reports were all men? Since the report, L.A.'s city council has ordered the LAPD, now 16 percent female, to strive for a force that is 44 percent female. The council's rationale: A higher ratio of women cops can save money. The Christopher Commission found that women officers are involved in fewer expensive lawsuits against the department.

The Los Angeles Police Department, which in recent years has sparked heated national debate on police brutality and racism, may be poised to ignite yet another - this time over internal bias against women. Already, national women's groups are calling for further investigation of the findings of the Police Commission.

Advance reports of the findings, parts of which were leaked to the New York Daily News, point to a brazen disdain by some LAPD male officers for their female counterparts. But the transcripts also may prompt precincts across the nation to take stock of how far they've come in achieving gender equality in their ranks - and how far they still have to go.
It depends on the department where they are. Some departments have faced the issue, and they've moved on. Other departments use these covert tactics; other departments make it so difficult for [female cops] that the women don't last.

Known as Men against Women (MAW), the informal organization inside the LAPD formed in the mid-1980s after a federal court ordered the department to hire more women. The tapes originally surfaced during the O.J. Simpson murder trial and were used by the defense to demonstrate racism in the LAPD. They recorded Fuhrman's conversations with aspiring screenwriter Laura Hart McKinny between 1986 and 1994; since then, he has said he exaggerated the truth when he spoke with her.

When Americans see the transcripts regarding this club, they will be truly shocked at the level of hatred toward women in this police force. The transcripts will also give credence to the widespread stories that have been heard from women for decades in police forces ... [but] to which people have responded.

According to the transcript-based news report, MAW had 145 members in five of 18 police divisions during the mid-1980s. It is also revealed that it held mock trials of male officers who were accused of fraternizing with women. Such tribunals often occurred after midnight in parking lots where participants would drink beer and sentence fellow officers to silent treatment and other means of ostracization.

Because of such complaints, and bolstered by today's revelations, the National Center for Women and Policing is joining with the Feminist Majority Foundation in calling for an independent probe of gender bias within the LAPD. They want more funding for an independent inspector general who reports to the Police Commission.

A 1981 federal consent decree requires the LAPD to be 20 percent female; the City Council has mandated 45 percent. Currently, the 9,400-member force is 17.2 percent female, short of the target but better than the average of 14.7 for the nation's largest cities. Still, America has made some strides in heightening women's role in policing. But, some officers warn, bastions of overt sexism do exist on many forces.

Civilian complaints against women are also consistently lower. In San Francisco, for example female officers account for only 5% of complaints although they make up 10% of the 1,839-person force. And when one see a reference to a female it's often the positive effect she has had in taking control in a different way from male officers. (Appier, 1998).

What is good About Female Officers?

The officer's courtesy call represents one of the latest trends in policing - us and them instead of us against them. It is one outgrowth of what experts say is the growing influence of women in uniform. Across the country, more women are walking the beat and tending the precinct house, heralding both subtle and significant changes in what has been one of America's most male-dominated institutions.

Indeed, as more women enter the ranks, there is an emerging recognition that they bring a distinct style to policing, one that depends more on negotiation than machismo. Women as a rule tend to be more collaborative. But their persistently small numbers belie their influence. In perhaps no other male-dominated arena does the infusion of women have the potential for such profound impact. As a result, police top brass from Pittsburgh to Portland, Ore., are seeking out women - and their policing skills. Potentially volatile situations that reach the hair-trigger stage are calmed by the presence of a woman. (Bell, 1982)

Research over the past years and recent anecdotes reveal a woman's way of walking the beat. In general, studies found, women depend less on physical strength and more on verbal skills than men do; women are less likely to be confrontational when first answering a call and more likely to use physical force only if the situation requires it. Some women in policing trace the difference to how girls have traditionally been brought up. Because of the way women are raised socially, they do communicate differently. There's more emphasis on skills to defuse violence through communication as opposed to force. (Brown & Sargent, 1995)

Men and women cops alike caution against the stereotype that male officers can't be nurturing and female officers can't be tough. Many women officers credit a male superior with supporting them in their years on the force. The most striking example, however, of women cops' tendency to avoid violence comes from the Christopher Commission, which studied the Los Angeles Police Department after the beating of motorist Rodney King in 1991. Its report revealed that women are rarely cited for using excessive force. (Bennett, 1983)

Other recent studies by criminologists have shown that women cops generate fewer citizen complaints than do men cops, are less inclined to use deadly force in general, and are involved in fewer shooting incidents. Even under powerful pressures to assimilate, this research shows, women have created and maintained their own way of policing. That's what's so remarkable. Despite this pressure to conform, women have still made a difference. Women officers exert a particular influence in certain types of crime -such as domestic violence, which makes up roughly half of all police calls, say police officers and criminologists across the country.

Women have also tended to be strong advocates and able executioners of the increasingly popular "community policing" concept. It's no coincidence that the police forces at the forefront of community policing also have a high percentage of women cops. For example, the department in Madison, a community-policing model, has 28 percent women officers.

Though much of the evidence is anecdotal, experts in policing say the verbal skills many women officers possess often have a calming effect that defuses potentially explosive situations As a rule, they tend to be much more likely to go in and talk rather than try to get control in a way that makes everyone defensive. Women cops perceive themselves as peacekeepers and negotiators.

Such a measured style is especially effective in handling rape and domestic-violence calls, in which the victims are usually women. A study of police officers' treatment of spousal-abuse cases concluded that female officers show more empathy and commitment to resolving these conflicts. While generalizations invite unfair stereotyping, male officers often tend not to take these calls as seriously, despite improved training and arrest policies in almost half of all states. Men tend to come on with a stronger approach to quiet a recalcitrant male suspect. (Bayley, 1988)

Despite the research, the notion of "female" and "male" policing styles remains a controversial one. Individual temperament is more important than gender in the way cops perform. Other experts contend that aggressiveness among officers is more a measure of a department's philosophy and the tone set by its top managers. When cops are trained to think of themselves as fighters in a war against crime, they come to view the public as the enemy.

Some female officers have qualms as well about highlighting gender-based differences in police work, especially women who have struggled for years to achieve equity in mostly male departments. The women fear that emphasizing their "people skills" will reinforce the charge that they don't have the heft or toughness to handle a crisis on the street. But while women generally lack upper body strength, studies consistently show that in situations in which force is needed, they perform as effectively as their male counterparts by using alternatives, such as karate, twist locks or a baton instead of their fists. (Brown & Sargent, 1995)

Yet the harassment that persists in many precinct houses tempts female cops to try to blend in and be one of the boys. All too often that means enduring the lewd jokes transmitted over police-car radios and the sexist remarks in the halls. In most places it means wearing an uncomfortable uniform designed for a man, including bulletproof vests that have not been adapted to women's figures. The atmosphere is made worse because about 3% of supervisors over the rank of sergeant are women, in part owing to lack of seniority.

Women cops who have fought discrimination in court have fared well. Los Angeles officer Fanchon Blake settled a memorable lawsuit in 1980 that opened up the ranks above sergeant to women. New York City detective Kathleen Burke won a settlement of $85.000 and a public promotion to detective first-grade. In her suit she had alleged that her supervisor's demeaning comments about her performance and his unwillingness to give her more responsible assignments impeded her professional progress. He denied the charges. But many women still fear that complaining about such treatment carries its own risks. A female officer would have to wonder whether she would get a quick response to a call for backup later on.

But some scholars are not convinced that women cops have left much of an imprint. The hypothesis that police need to change their approach to a community-policing strategy is flawed. The crime rate across the country has dropped because of "aggressive policing," not community policing. (Bell, 1982)

It is found in the new study conducted by the national center for Women and Policing that women are recruiting at an alarming slow rate in the law enforcement agencies of the nation. The center says in a report titled Equality Denied that women will never have equal status in police departments, especially in the highest ranks.

The report showed that women represent about 14 percent of law enforcement positions nationwide, up a half of a percentage point from 1997. Since 1990, their numbers have increased by 3.2 percent. (Bennett, 1983)

Other findings in the report included that more than one-third of the 176 police departments surveyed have no women in top command ranks and nearly three-quarters have no high-ranking women of color. Also, of the 10 big-city police departments with the largest number of female officers, eight were forced to hire more women by federal court orders.

Women and men may enter the profession with very different motives and expectations. Men who enter law enforcement may discover that it has lost some of the prestige and respect that it had in earlier generations. Men my expect respect and esteem and may become increasingly disillusioned when these expectations are not met. In contrast, law enforcement is a relatively new occupational career option for women; the women who choose this filed may be more psychologically determined to succeed, and self-esteem may be enhanced by the choice of law enforcement as a career.

Women possess some skills that make them successful in the law enforcement job such as soft verbal skills, peace making and negotiation.

Bibliography

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