P068. Late to the Beat: Why the U.S. Lags in Recruiting and Retaining Female Officers in Comparison to other Western Countries

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Abstract

A long-standing debate among Western police culture scholars is whether police culture is monolithic or if it is subcultural. While most contemporary literature rejects an entirely monolithic view, research supporting subcultures is still formulated based on themes derived from monolithic police culture research (e.g. secrecy, us versus them, masculinity, etc.). Some accounts go as far as to utilize research from other Western countries, justifying this based on the similarities of Western models of policing, despite many of these same articles rejecting monolithic police culture views. While in many respects the similarity of Western police organizations does hold merit, the theme of masculinity (one of the most dominant themes of police culture) is where these countries diverge.
The overemphasis of masculinity in policing is often cited as a dominant factor in the failed recruitment and retention of female police officers. While police culture literature based in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom all cite this as a problem within their departments, the US significantly trails in the gender makeup of their departments at only 13% women nationwide. The other three countries have long since exceeded a 20%, or even 30%, female officer benchmark. If themes of masculinity were consistent across police departments in these countries, one would expect increases and stalls in female officer recruitment and retention to be similar across all four countries. By evaluating diversity policy initiatives in each country, this study will explore the advancements of female officers using a interrupted-time series approach. The goal is to understand the factors influencing the increases and stalls to female officer recruitment and retention and why the US trails in comparison to otherwise comparable societies.

Author

• Ashley Schroeder, American University