Stuck on a Plateau?

Abstract

This article explores reasons why the level of employment of women police in the United States is relatively low and no longer seems to be increasing. Surveys were administered to all women officers and all police chiefs in a three-county area of Pennsylvania where the proportion of women police is lower than the national average. The chiefs and women officers largely agreed about the impact of many components of the hiring process. Women officers perceived more shortcomings in recruitment practices than did the chiefs, though, and put much more emphasis on the male-dominated cultures of police academies and police organizations as obstacles to both recruitment and retention of women officers.