Public and Police Students’ Attitudes Toward Women as Police Officers in Iceland

• In Event: POLWG Panel 23: Women in Policing

Abstract

A masculine police culture has been identified as an explanation for the persistent underrepresentation of women in policing. Traditional gender norms within the police contribute to negative attitudes toward women’s ability to serve as police officers, creating barriers to entry for women and reasons to leave the police. However, a central question remains whether negative attitudes toward women as police officers within the police are the result of self-selection or police socialization. In this study, we address this question by comparing public and police students’ attitudes toward women as police officers in Iceland. The study uses supplemented data from the European Social Survey (N=497) and RECPOL (N=706). Preliminary results suggest that public attitudes toward women in policing are generally more negative than those of police students (incoming and graduating). For the same age groups, a smaller proportion of the general public believes that women and men are equally capable of serving as police officers compared to police students. Moreover, the public is more inclined to hold traditional gender role views regarding policing, such as perceiving female officers as more suited to showing empathy toward women and children. Women and individuals with university degrees are more likely to have positive perceptions of female police officers. Furthermore, positioning oneself at the right of the political spectrum is associated with more negative attitudes towards women in policing among police students but not the public. That police students hold more positive views than the public suggests that negative attitudes of female police officers are not primarily the result of self-selection or even police socialization but rather reflect broader societal attitudes. This challenges the assumption that police culture is the primary driver of gendered attitudes in policing and highlights the need for addressing societal perceptions of policing as a masculine profession.

Authors

• Guðmundur Oddsson, University of Akureyri

• Margrét Valdimarsdóttir, University of Iceland