From Policy to Progress: Women’s Representation in Canadian Policing

• In Event: Police Organization: Gender, Recruitment and Representation

Abstract

Most contemporary police culture literature addresses hypermasculinity as being one of the most prominent features of the police environment. Western countries seem to agree that hypermasculinity reduces the recruitment and retention of female officers. Despite this long standing consensus and shared problem, the US has remained stagnant for decades at about 12-13% women in policing while countries like Canada have made steady increases. Using 1986-2023 data from the Canadian Police Administration Survey (PAS), this paper will use interrupted time series regression to determine the impact of diversity policies and initiatives on female officer recruitment and retention. Ultimately, this paper seeks to isolate successful gender diversity advances in Canadian policing in order to provide practical policy implications for the US.

Author

• Ashley Schroeder, American University