ABSTRACT

Does gender inequality impact the careers of female law enforcement officers in the Southeast Missouri region? Using a qualitative single instrumental case study, seven cis-gendered female law enforcement officers who were employed at local law enforcement agencies within the Southeast Missouri region were interviewed to investigate the central research question. Four themes emerged from the data that illustrated their experiences: sexual exploitation and harassment, a lack of work-life balance, the presence of gender stereotypes, and patriarchal hierarchy and male dominance in the workplace. The findings suggest that the experiences of female law enforcement officers are heavily impacted by the behavior and attitudes of their coworkers and command staff, most of whom are male. Keywords: Southeast Missouri, law enforcement, gender inequality, qualitative case study.

While it has been established that law enforcement agencies invest substantial monetary and non-monetary resources to recruit, hire, and train qualified everyday civilians into law enforcement officers (Henderson & Melitski, 2022), less is known about how to effectively reduce officer turnover, especially among female law enforcement employees (Andreescu & Vito, 2021; Smith et al., 2014). Qualified officers who leave their law enforcement jobs cost their agency an estimated one to five times the salary of one full time employee, with turnover being highest in smaller, southern, rural, and municipal level agencies (Hilal & Litsey, 2020). Along these same lines, law enforcement employees who are not motivated to perform to a certain standard, and who are not subsequently rewarded for reaching that certain standard, tend to leave their current organizations for new opportunities (Ahmad et al., 2018). These forms of turnover are seen in law enforcement for numerous reasons, with one of these reasons being the lack of leadership opportunities for females (Swan, 2016). While some women are content with staying in a low-level role for the entirety of their law enforcement career, others will want to move up the ladder (so to speak) to become supervisors and leaders in an organization (Scully et al., 2017; Vieira et al., 2023). Yet many law enforcement agencies struggle with hiring, retaining, and promoting female officers (Rabe-Hemp, 2017; Shelley et al., 2011). The lack of accessible leadership opportunities for females in the law enforcement workplace is one factor that increases employee turnover (Swan, 2016). The unique workplace culture of law enforcement may also play a part in the lack of retaining, recruiting, and promoting women within the law enforcement workplace.  A review of the extant literature is thus in order to investigate this possibility.

Gender Inequality and the Unique Workplace Culture of Law Enforcement

Workplace culture is the shared values, beliefs, attitudes, and assumptions of the individuals in a given workplace (Clark, 2001; Lewis, 2001; Schnurr, 2008). Law enforcement agencies are known to have a very unique workplace culture, as law enforcement is largely built on the idea that your coworker is your brother or sister and that members of law enforcement are a type of family (Gilmartin, 1990; Sanders et al., 2022). In a traditional job, this is seen as an employee grouping (Bleakley, 2021).  Yet law enforcement puts much more of a personal twist on the idea of employee grouping because looking at your coworkers as family presents certain benefits, one of which is that it creates an organizational culture which fosters a positive environment for all employees within the same department or agency. Challenges also arise, as individuals in leadership roles in law enforcement agencies are responsible for moving members of the ‘family’ towards common goals. A law enforcement employee who feels compatible with the organization where they work is positively associated with job satisfaction and organization commitment, as well as negatively associated with turnover (Hilal & Litsey, 2020). The opposite is also true.

Diversifying the workplace culture of law enforcement along gender lines is important to achieve if law enforcement agencies wish to address the legacy of gender inequality within American society.  Although the majority of Americans believe that gender inequality is a very distinct societal issue that needs to be addressed (Agbegbedia, 2022), a smaller number of Americans understand how much of an impact gender inequality continues to have on society. Men generally do not consider the problems that stem from gender inequality to be as severe as women do, with many men believing that certain tasks were made for women and other tasks were made for men (Eisend, 2019; Levtov et al., 2014; Matud et al., 2019; Schneider & Bos, 2019). A number of men also think that the wage gap and lack of female leadership in the workplace is not a severe issue (Rotman & Mandel, 2022).

The subordinate position of women in society has allowed men to acquire more power, more money, and more recognition over time, as well as to move higher up in the ranks of society (Eisend, 2019; Storage et al., 2020). According to work conducted by the Pew Research Center (Aragao, 2023), median earnings for women were 82% of that of men in 2022.  The specific 2023 wage gap between men and women was a 17.3 cent difference, with women making 82.7 cents for every dollar a man makes (Guzman & Kollar, 2024). While an earnings gap between women and men is still present, pressure on society to narrow the earnings gap between women and men has been working, as the earnings gap was closer to 40 cents in 1980 (Guzman & Kollar, 2024). Although the narrowing of the wage gap over time highlights the strides society has made to reduce gender inequality, its presence in the workplace remains perennial, a point raised by numerous scholars (Blau, 2025; Blau et al., 2012; Silva & Klasen, 2021).

Feminist Theory, Feminist Criminology, and Law Enforcement

By using a feminist theoretical lens, one can articulate how the patriarchal system that is predominant within society generally and law enforcement agencies specifically operate as oppressive systems and structures which lock women out of positions of employment and leadership in law enforcement, and that this in turn perpetuates gender inequality.  For example, according to scholars affiliated with the Feminist Majority Foundation, within large police agencies women accounted for 13.5% of line operation positions, 9.6% of supervisory posts, and 7.3% of top command positions in law enforcement (Lonsway et al., 2002), even though women are roughly half of the population. Feminist theory would explain that the reason for these statistics is because women are overlooked and diminished in the world of law enforcement, making them the subordinate ‘other’ group.  Indeed, feminist scholars have long argued that the patriarchal nature of society heavily affects the structure and organization of society, as well as the experiences of men and women within society (Batton & Wright, 2019; Hunnicutt, 2009; Kandiyoti, 1988; Lerner, 1986).  This pattern of a patriarchal society can still be seen within the workplace broadly and within the law enforcement workplace specifically by way of feminist criminology. 

Feminist criminology, introduced in the 1970’s as a product of the women’s movement (Messerschmidt, 1993; Renzetti, 2013), was responsible for recognizing male domination in mainstream criminology and criminal justice (Renzetti, 2013). A multitude of feminist theoretical perspectives in the world of criminal justice have roots that can be traced back to this time. These feminist theoretical perspectives help continue to influence social perceptions of the criminal justice system by pushing forward new practices and by focusing on including gender in important decision-making processes in the fields of criminal justice, criminology, and law enforcement.

Feminist criminology has found that historically, the field of criminal justice has followed a masculine ideology (Fabricator et al., 1978; Vega & Silverman, 1982), with power and toughness being the cornerstone of training and education for future law enforcement officers (Balch, 1972; van der Meulen et al., 2019). While women have been able to be employed as law enforcement officers for decades, the criminal justice system has not fully embraced the idea of femininity in police work, if at all. Research by Batton and Wright (2019) has shown that female law enforcement officers routinely react less physically and fatally than their male counterparts, yet law enforcement officials still have not caught on to the benefit of femininity in police work. While many situations do call for deadly force, it is important to understand that gentler approaches, most of which female law enforcement officers can choose to employ, are also beneficial and can produce more positive outcomes for both departments and the citizens they serve. But how can these approaches exist within a workplace culture that stresses patriarchy and male leadership?

Is There a Workplace Culture of Gender Inequality in Southeast Missouri?

Placing women within leadership positions in law enforcement organizations is important for agencies to overcome the legacy of gender inequality in the workplace. Yet gender inequality remains one of the most prevalent variables that affects retention of female officers in present day law enforcement agencies, as both systemic and structural exclusion of women from many roles in law enforcement (Adom & Anambane, 2020; Fernandes, 2011; Greguletz et al., 2019) is still present within the field. Social misconceptions of masculinity and femininity among workers is at least partially responsible for the lack of retention and advancement of women in law enforcement (Fernandes, 2011; Rabe-Hemp, 2017), as men generally do not consider the problems that stem from gender inequality to be as severe in the workplace as women do (Coulter, 2003; Levtov et al., 2014). 

While more women are employed in law enforcement than ever before, their advancement into leadership roles within the law enforcement system is lacking when compared to their male counterparts (Shjarback & Todak, 2019). According to a 2016 report from the U.S. Department of Justice, only 2.9% of women held the title of police chief, while only 7.5% held supervisory positions and 9.7% were first-line sergeants. It is important to note that these percentages were about the same a few years previously in 2013 (Hyland & Davis, 2019)[1], a fact which suggests that the retention, recruiting, and promotion of women within the law enforcement workplace is not a priority for many law enforcement agencies. Indeed, in a study of 168 women working in 34 federal law enforcement agencies, all of the participants reported at least one occupational barrier in their workplace, such as negative attitudes from male colleagues, a lack of females in leadership positions, and a lack of work-life balance (Yu, 2015).

The Southeast Missouri region tends to employ more men than women within law enforcement.  For example, in Cape Girardeau County, law enforcement agencies include the Cape Girardeau Police Department, the Cape Girardeau Sheriff Department, the Delta Police Department, the Jackson Police Department, and the Southeast Missouri State University Department of Public Safety.  In 2022, only 15 of the 172 officers employed in these agencies were female, which is 8.7% of all employees (United States Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2023).  This number is below the national average of between 12% and 13% of all law enforcement officers in America who are female (Hyland & Davis, 2019; Seklecki & Paynich, 2007; Van Ness, 2021).  The lack of women employed within those departments may be an indicator of how gender inequality is present in the workplace of law enforcement agencies in Southeast Missouri.  To investigate this possibility, the current project examined whether gender inequality impacts the careers of cis-gendered female law enforcement officers in the Southeast Missouri region.

[1] It is important to note that these data from 2016 were published in 2019 and represent the most recent locatable data.

Method

This project used a qualitative single instrumental case study methodological approach (Creswell & Poth, 2016) to gather data. As both Creswell and Poth (2016) and Yin (2009) note, a single instrumental case study approach focuses on examining social events or situations that occur within a bounded context or setting.  A single instrumental case study design is also a good choice for research that focuses on exploring the experiences of individuals, a small group, or an organization with the intent of providing greater understanding of the case in question (Aidley, 2018; Creswell & Poth, 2016; Yin, 2009).  Furthermore, a single instrumental case study approach is appropriate when a researcher works within a bounded system as a way to gain knowledge of a particular issue or concern (Creswell & Poth, 2016; Yin, 2009).  Because the current project is working within the bounded geographical region of Southeast Missouri and focusing on the topic of gender inequality within the small group setting of law enforcement workplace culture, a single instrumental case study is well-suited for the current investigatory endeavors. 

Open-ended semi-structured interviews were used to gather data from a sample drawn from the population of cis-gendered female law enforcement officers who are employed at either local, state, or federal law enforcement agencies within the Southeast Missouri region. The region includes Cape Girardeau County, Perry County, Bollinger County, Scott County, and Stoddard County. Seven cis-gendered female law enforcement officers who were employed at a law enforcement agency within the geographical area noted above agreed to participate within the project.  Although the researchers had originally intended to gather a sample of at least 12 participants, it was the case that only seven individuals agreed to participate despite repeated attempts over the course of several months to gather a larger sample.  Both purposive sampling and snowball sampling approaches were used to locate the participants who formed the sample, as both were needed to obtain the final sample of seven respondents.  It should be noted that it was somewhat challenging to find respondents for two reasons.  The first reason has been noted, as there is a relatively low population of actively employed female officers in the field in Southeast Missouri.  The second reason stems from the fact that some potential respondents declined to participate within the project out of concern that their participation might somehow impact their employment.

Questions asked of the respondents included items such as “what prompted you to join law enforcement,” “what accomplishments related to being a female police officer are you proud of,”, “do you feel that these accomplishments can be held by your male coworkers, or are they related to being a female,” and “if you have ever experienced harassment at work, can you tell me about it?” As a way to fully explore the experiences of respondents, spontaneous follow-up probes were used to obtain as much information from respondents as possible.  All interviews were conducted in a private location outside of the respondents’ workplace, and each interview lasted somewhere between 20 minutes and one hour in length, with the typical interview time being somewhere between 30 and 50 minutes. Interviews were digitally recorded and later transcribed in preparation for data analysis. In order to ensure confidentiality of identity of the research subjects, pseudonyms were used in all transcriptions and all information that could potentially identify respondents were masked within the transcribed data. Prior to all data collection, IRB approval was sought and granted in May 2023. An informed consent was provided to all interview subjects prior to the onset of all interviews.

Data Analysis

The current project used an inductive coding process due to the nature of the research question. A ground-up coding approach was used by deriving descriptive codes from the data that was collected from the individuals in the chosen sample. The first level of coding, known as open coding, was used to identify distinct concepts and themes for organization (Berg & Lune, 2018; Neuman, 2009; Williams & Moser, 2019), while the second level of coding, known as axial coding, was used to refine, align, and categorize initial themes established in the open coding process (Berg & Lune, 2018; Neuman, 2009; Williams & Moser, 2019). Axial coding acts as a transition step by further refining the established themes to support collected evidence. The final level of coding is thematic coding (Berg & Lune, 2018; Neuman, 2009), a step which involves the recording of identification of common themes within the data that are related through a central idea (Gibbs, 2007), such as the central thesis statement guiding the current investigation. A total of 511 keyword and key phrase open codes were developed from the data. These open codes were reduced to eight axial codes, and the axial codes were further reduced to four final themes that were used to explore the role that gender inequality may have in the careers of cis-gendered female law enforcement officers in the Southeast Missouri region. These four themes are sexual exploitation and harassment, a lack of work-life balance, gender stereotypes, and patriarchal hierarchy and male dominance in the workplace. Evidence for each theme is presented in the findings section.

Positionality Statement

Positionality refers to a person’s worldview and the perspectives they adopt (which are guided by their worldview) when they engage in research (Foote & Bartell 2011; Holmes, 2020; Rogers et al. 2013; Rowe, 2014; Savin-Baden & Major, 2013). Being mindful of positionality means that the authors must note how their status characteristics may have impacted the current investigation. The primary author is a Caucasian 24 year old cis-gendered female who has accrued professional work experience in law enforcement, while the secondary author is a 55 year old cis-gendered male who has published work concerning criminal justice but who has no direct law enforcement experience. The third author is a 67 year old cis-gendered male who holds a law degree and has extensive experience working within higher education. These status characteristics and life experiences most likely impacted our investigation into whether or not gender discrimination impacts the careers of cis-gendered female law enforcement officers in the Southeast Missouri region. This is why we want to acknowledge here that our status characteristics and experiences, and by extension our positionality, has most likely influenced this project through our previous experiences and training.

With that noted, it is important to state that all of the authors aimed to achieve both research objectivity and empathetic neutrality during the course of this investigation. We did this by being mindful of the advice of Ormston et al. (2014), as they note that empathetic neutrality can be achieved not only through avoiding bias in any form, but also by striving for objectivity as much as possible when organizing, analyzing, and presenting the data collected during the research process. Even though this was our goal, we were mindful that all research will be influenced in some way by both the researcher and the research process (Ormston et al., 2014). Thus, we strove for empathetic neutrality and research objectivity specifically because we wanted to learn more about the experience that cis-gendered female law enforcement officers have with gender inequality. It is our hope that by objectively analyzing how a variety of factors impact the lived experiences of female law enforcement officers, we can help to raise awareness of the lived experiences of law enforcement employees, both male and female, in the Southeast Missouri region.

Findings

Overall, the findings indicate that the experiences of the seven female law enforcement officers who are actively employed at a law enforcement agency in the Southeast Missouri region was heavily impacted by the behavior and attitudes of their coworkers and command staff, all of whom are predominantly male. While some positive experiences were noted by respondents, most of the experiences in the workplace of female law enforcement officers had negative undertones. The evidence collected suggests that all seven respondents encountered gender inequality in the form of sexual exploitation and harassment, a lack of work-life balance, gender stereotypes, and patriarchal hierarchy and male dominance in the workplace.

Sexual Exploitation and Harassment

When a female law enforcement officer joins a law enforcement agency, they are typically looking for stability, comradery, and fulfillment in the workplace (Irabor & Okolie, 2019; Swan, 2016; Willis & Mastrofski, 2017). Through the data collection and data analysis, it was discovered that some of the subjects instead experienced unprovoked sexual exploitation and harassment from their male coworkers. Madison describes the sexual harassment she encountered on the job:

I'm happy with keeping it where it was at because I didn't want to bring the sex aspect into it. Not that I don't think that they would have had my back if I had told them, but it would have just completely changed the situation. Like from focus on him to then focus on you when it really shouldn't even have been on you. He tried to kiss me is what happened. It wasn't further than that. (Madison)

Madison went on to note that her relationship with her male coworker, which was strictly professional, was compromised due to his inability to control his sexual desires and respect her personal boundaries. She voiced that while her department would support her if she would have escalated her issue up the chain, doing so would draw negative attention to her and her work, which she did not want. An experience like this can greatly impact one’s ability to work effectively and trust a male hierarchy, even if the female was not complicit in the negative actions and experience. This point can be seen in another excerpt from Madison:

I didn’t really know what to do whenever he did that. But then, two weeks later is whenever he made a suicidal statement towards me. I knew he was in a bad mental place, but then two weeks later, he said he was in a very, very bad situation. I finally decided that I was going to say something, so I called my now [supervisor], he wasn’t [my supervisor] at that time. I also called my [other supervisor], and they switched me that weekend. He also made a threat that he was going to make Monday hell. So that made me trust people a little bit less because of how manipulative he was. (Madison)

This information from Madison shows how sexual harassment from male coworkers can be used to manipulate female law enforcement officers, which ultimately disrupts the trust and safety of the entire department. Too often female victims of sexual exploitation and harassment given unnecessary attention from negative experiences (Taylor et al., 2022), which as highlighted by Madison, is one of the main reasons she chose to withhold exploitive information from her command staff.

Similar to but different from Madison’s experiences, Jennifer had to contend with more verbal and psychological sexual exploitation from her male coworkers in the form of gossip and rumors.

Yeah, I mean, there was a comment with the fuck me eyes, there are people that will try to hang out. And then you know, they didn’t have genuine intentions. And then, at this point in my career, in their mind, I’ve probably messed around with about five people, there have been rumors about at least five. So that’s one of those things where, like, obviously, I don’t put myself down for it. But I know that for some people, they may think less of me because of that, because there’s some people that probably really do believe that I have done that. And so, you know, there was a joke for a while that I was the department pass around, but I had absolutely no interest in any of that. (Jennifer)

In this excerpt, Jennifer noted that male coworkers at her department were complicit in the spreading of sexually exploitive rumors regarding her physicality, most of which would be a hinderance to promotion in a healthy work environment that employs both male and females. Jennifer highlighted her disbelief at how quickly sexual exploitation at her department of this nature spread.

When I first started, they said I was messing around with two different deputies, which I was not. And so, my comment was, oh, wow, I’ve only been here like four months because this was when I was in dispatch, too. So, when I first was in dispatch, they said I was messing around with two of them. And so, they finally told me because it’s been going on since I started and nobody had told me that this was going on. (Jennifer)

Much like Jennifer highlighting that she had no interest in the sexual encounters that had been discussed throughout her department, Emma had experienced the same, but with a bit of a twist.

These engaged men, married men, boyfriends, how they speak about some of the women we go to calls on, while we’re on a call. Why are you talking about titties?... So, I’m someone that likes to speak my mind on that type of stuff, especially if I know you have like a wife at home or girlfriend or fiancé or something. And I got into it with one of my platoon mates for like a week. He wouldn’t even talk to me because he was so butthurt because I spoke my opinion about it. Maybe don’t speak like that when you have a wife at home, that’s disrespectful. I literally was shunned by this man for a week. (Emma)

In this excerpt, Emma discussed the sexual exploitation of females by her male coworkers and highlights how she combats the issue, which eventually created a hostile work environment for her. Despite her best efforts, Emma endured negative outcomes in the form of shunning from noting how disrespectful the actions of her male coworkers were.

Like Madison, Jennifer, and Emma, Natalie revealed that “you’re in a profession that you have to have pretty tough skin” and “sometimes it’s just like, slight inappropriateness.” This response from Natalie suggests that sexual harassment is normal and that without tough skin (i.e., ignoring harassment), you’re “probably in the wrong field.”

A Lack of Work-Life Balance

Attracting and retaining employees is important for all types of organizations (Clark, 2001; Lewis, 2001; Swan, 2016), especially organizations that center around public safety and law enforcement (Swan, 2016). Generally speaking, employees who are actively engaged help to build and attract a resourceful talent pool, which in turn further improves an organization’s mission (Bakotić, 2016). In order to attract and retain employees, it is important for an organization to establish their mission and values, as this helps to identify the most important skills that organizations are looking for. Thus, building a workplace culture that emphasizes employee success and work-life balance is important to bridge the gap between potential employees and current employees (Paoline & Gau, 2020).

Because law enforcement is a mentally and physically demanding profession, work-life balance is essential in order to maintain one’s well-being and avoid burnout. But achieving this balance as a female law enforcement officer is challenging. For example, Samantha sees the balance of being an officer and a mother a difficult one: “I always joke and say I’m a full-time cop and I’m a full-time mother. Because basically when I’m off I’m with her.” Playing both roles means she gets little time for herself: “I don’t have a day off to work out. That’s really hard.” Throughout her interview, Samantha discussed how much she appreciates and loves her job, but that when her kids are thrown into the equation, the balance is hard to find: “I would tell people don’t become a cop. Because it’s not easy with everything.”

Turnover in law enforcement agencies is seen more among females than males (Hilal & Litsey, 2020; Yu, 2015). The most often cited cause for this is due to familial reasons such as pregnancy and raising children (Caillier, 2016), both of which impact work-life balance. In concurrence with these findings and the data from Samantha above, Madison furnished additional accounts of how children can hinder effective work performance and growth within a department as a female officer:

So, when it comes to thinking about making a family, it’s completely different because if I was just a regular female officer, I wouldn’t have stuff to kind of go back on like, since I’ve been in the jail and since I’ve been in dispatch, I can go to dispatch if I want to go and still work while I’m pregnant. But if it’s a regular female officer that doesn’t have that kind of experience, they’re going to get stuck in back filing or, you know, going on light duty and it’s a lot more different for a female than a male, because we have to carry a kid for months. And that’s not even including what’s going to happen afterwards once you have the kid. So that’s definitely a different part. And I mean, you got to think about how much your body is going to change afterwards, too. So, I mean, males have it a little bit easier, especially when it comes to family stuff. (Madison)

Much like Samantha, Madison implied that starting a family can act as a setback for female officers’ careers by noting that child rearing has been “pushed off for me” due to the possibility of it negatively impacting her career: “I don’t want to mess up my career with a kid.” In concurrence with Samantha and Madison, Mackenzie indicated that expanding her family with her significant other scares her: “bringing kids into this world doing the job that I do just terrifies me.”

Natalie highlighted how she chose to exit the workplace for a period of ten years in order to focus on motherhood due to the challenges that arose during pregnancy.

Then I had actually hired on with the [former job] down in [location redacted], after that little stint with [my previous job]. In the same day I accepted the position I found out I was pregnant, oh my goodness. My son ended up having major complications and [I] went on complete bedrest. He was born [prematurely]… that took me out of the field… I stayed home with him, getting him through numerous surgeries, and a six-month NICU stay. (Natalie)

When Natalie chose to come back to law enforcement, her department was “very, very good with our family,” indicating that her son’s health issues did not put a damper on her career progression.

The idea of the modern nuclear family is still one where women are seen as primarily responsible for the care of children, while men are seen in the role of monetary provider, also known as ‘the bread winner’ (Sear, 2016). While expanding and growing a family is a concern of a number of the female law enforcement officers that were interviewed, it was not the only thing that impacted their work-life balance. The demands of the schedule were also a consideration. Emma highlighted the demanding schedule when stating, “I think law enforcement is fine. I like it. I enjoy it. The schedules suck, I’m just tired of just everything.” High expectations from command staff to fill shortages and empty stations can take its toll on officers, many of whom already work a demanding schedule. Indeed, many officers are on a continuous rotation of day shift and night shift, which throws the circadian rhythm out of natural rotation. As Mackenzie indicated, without centering one’s entire life around the job, “you won’t survive”:

Every aspect of this job, dispatch, corrections, law enforcement, detectives, leadership. You have to want it; this job will absolutely suck the life out of you. It cannot just be a job. It has to be a whole identity. You won’t survive it it’s not. (Mackenzie)

Expectations to work overtime on an already demanding and busy schedule can overwork and overexerts officers, as Mackenzie indicated: “I come in on my off days and I help like serve papers and backup for calls. But for the most part I’m working dispatch on my off days.” When asked if the experience of the demanding schedule is unique to this thesis’s geographical area, Emma replied, “I think all police departments are the same.”

Gender Stereotypes

Analysis of the data showed that gender-centered stereotypes fostered by male law enforcement coworkers, as well as public citizens, against women in law enforcement were so common within the verbal dialogue of the region’s law enforcement workplaces that one could argue that stereotypes should be listed under requirements of the job. When asked about her experience with gender stereotypes within the law enforcement workplace, Natalie noted that “you’re in law enforcement. If you don’t have tough skin, you’re probably in the wrong field. I hear it all the time.” Emma went into depth about her experience with gender stereotypes while working as a female law enforcement officer when noting that “patrolmen like to bring up, ‘Why would you come to a male dominated thing if you don’t like to be around men?’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t like to be disrespected’.”

While dealing with the atmosphere created by her male coworkers, Emma also had to deal with public citizens questioning her legitimacy within the law enforcement workforce. “They may not even know they do it. Honestly. But you’re treated differently, like 100% by coworkers, citizens, criminals, like everybody, you’re treated differently.” Not only did Emma experience stereotypical undertones from her male coworkers, but also from the public in which she serves. An experience like this can taint a female officer’s aspirations and drive to continue working in the industry. Jennifer had experiences similar to Emma, as she had her own run-ins with public citizens treating her different than her male counterparts.

I can tell, you know, in a way certain people kind of look at you, or certain questions, they say, they may not be directly saying you’re a female, you know, but you can tell that in their mind, they’re already kind of thinking about the fact that you’re a female. (Jennifer)

In the following excerpt, Samantha highlights her experience with male coworkers in regard to her ability to handle her own on a physically demanding call.

Like there’s not a certain person, but it always happens. It’s a male dominant job, but sometimes, you know, the guys will make not a comment, but they’ll do something that is related to that. Like let’s say me and this other officer are going to a disturbance and they say it’s a 300-pound person and they’re in a fight. And the other officer’s like, can we have another person? It’s like, do you not think I can handle it? Yeah, you know, like, things like that. So, it’s like they’re making indirect comments like, you could just say to my face, hey, I think we need somebody else because I don’t think you can handle it. I know that’s still super disrespectful, but I would rather be directly disrespected than like beating around the bush. And it’s almost as if they think that you’re not going to know like what they’re referring to and you’re sitting there and you’re like, I know exactly why you’re calling somebody else. I’m right here. Yeah. So there’s always the guys that have the big egos and like let’s say we all get in a fight. And I try to jump in and I try to help but they say no stay back. I mean, sometimes I take it as like, oh, they just care about me and they don’t want me to get hurt and they do the rough stuff. Like the hard stuff. But then sometimes it’s just kind of like, let me do the hard stuff, please, like how am I going to learn? (Samantha)

Samantha goes on to describe how it feels to be a small statured female within the law enforcement industry, illustrating how male coworkers see her physical being as hindering to ability to do the job effectively: “we are smaller and sometimes not stronger than men. But I will say I have met some females. I have some female friends in [location redacted]… I would never want to mouth off to them.” Females are characteristically smaller in stature than men, but that does not mean they are unable to do the job of a male law enforcement officer. Yet this is the assumption that Samantha has experienced at her department.

Social misconceptions of masculinity and femininity introduced as a result of patriarchy is at least partially responsible for the lack of retention of women in law enforcement (Fernandes, 2011; Rabe-Hemp, 2017), a fact that can be seen in the following excerpt from Jennifer. Much like Emma, Jennifer feels stereotyped from her male coworkers while being a female law enforcement officer, in an environment she dubbed, “A good old boy club”:

I think that because I’m so new and because it’s kind of a good old boys agency that I tend to get questioned. You know, like, when I go out and do certain things, they’re like, okay, that’s great. But then there’s other times where if I’m going into something that I initiated that kind of has like the stereotypical guy behind it then they want to like start overstepping and talking and acting like I don’t know what I’m doing even though I just told them what I was doing was exactly what they’re explaining that I should do. (Jennifer)

While feeling defeated in her ability to handle her own while doing her duties of the job, male coworkers spread sexually themed rumors about her behind her back, with Jennifer having no knowledge of the incident until months down the line.

I’m usually the last to know about rumors about myself. But yeah, so it started immediately and I was maybe there for six months, you know, before I finally knew is like between four to six months, somewhere in that range. And when I finally found out I joked with him and I was like, oh wow, only like, like 14 more people to go. I was joking, obviously. You know, and I think some people were not used to me, like used to anybody not taking it personally, and I think maybe it might have hurt myself in the long run. I’m not hurt by it but I think that it might have encouraged it all little bit unintentionally by laughing it off and joking about it instead of taking it personally. (Jennifer)

In regard to confronting gender stereotyping in the workplace, Samantha explained the impact that gender stereotyping has on a female officer, and how likely that individual is to report it to command staff.

There’s always that stigma with female law enforcement officers that we’re always going to be drama… I feel like females don’t bring that to supervisors because they don’t want to fit that stigma. But it doesn’t really specifically have to do with the supervisors themselves. It’s more you don’t want to play into it. So, you’re going to be a lot more cautious about reporting. (Samantha)

The duties of the job are the same for both male and female officers, but certain respondents alluded to the idea that even though law enforcement is modernizing, females still are not fully trusted to handle certain physical aspects of the job.

During her interview, Cassie detailed how progression of time has helped rid the workplace of gender stereotypes, but ultimately it still needs work: “It’s a stereotype that is going away as time progressed. But still, you just have to not let them have anything bad to say.” This excerpt gives credence to the idea that in order to be effective in their line of work as a female law enforcement officer, women must come to the realization that they must control their words and actions around male coworkers in order to not ‘rock the boat’ and progress within their career.

While law enforcement is traditionally and historically a male dominated field (Adom & Anambane, 2020; Fernandes, 2011; Greguletz et al., 2019), modern times have shown that the number of active-duty female law enforcement officers is growing (Shjarback & Todak, 2019). With that said, old habits die hard, as a majority of law enforcement departments that respondents within the sample worked at had no women in command positions. None of the females sampled had a rank higher than patrolwoman or deputy, but many of the respondents did aspire to grow their career and become a leader within their law enforcement agency.

Patriarchal Hierarchy and Male Dominance in the Workplace

It was the case that patriarchal hierarchy and male dominance in the workplace was present when female law enforcement officers explained their experiences in law enforcement in the Southeast Missouri region. While a majority of Americans believe that gender inequality is a very distinct societal issue (Agbegbedia, 2022), only a smaller number of individuals understand how much of an impact gender inequality has on society. Men generally do not consider the problems that stem from gender equality to be as severe as women do, with some men believing that certain tasks were made for women and other tasks being made for men (Eisend, 2019; Levtov et al., 2014; Matud et al., 2019; Schneider & Bos, 2019). A number of men also think that the wage gap and lack of leadership representation in the workplace is not a severe issue (Rotman & Mandel, 2022).

While patriarchal hierarchy and male dominance in the workplace were reported by all respondents, each subject had their own unique experience with patriarchal hierarchy and male dominance. In the excerpt below, Emma detailed her experience with being overpowered and dominated by her male coworkers when it comes to fulfilling duties of the job she is more than able to handle on her own.

I was told by a corporal to never go to certain calls by myself. Even if you’re dispatched. I was told to never go to trespass things by myself. You know, how many officers go to trespasses by themselves? And of course, assists are always coming like that’s just the thing like girl or boy like they will be there to help you and I appreciate it. But to tell me don’t go to these calls by yourself. Especially you is what they say, do not go to trespassers by yourself because someone went to one by themselves and they got kind of shit about it or whatever, because it went south. And they’re like, you’re not supposed to go those by yourself. I’m like, okay, so do you think I’m weak? I guess I’m probably weaker than all the guys there. But like, really, I’m a baby they kind of treat me like I’m just like ditzy. I’m working smart but common sense isn’t always there about stuff. But here’s the deal. Like I’m new to this like and they kind of throw you out there like figure it out is what they say. So I'm trying to just kind of figure my shit out. But yeah, they kind of treat you like you're a little bit of a baby. (Emma)

On one occasion, Emma experienced the misuse of gender hierarchy from none other than a male coworker on her command staff. Frustrated with the inability of male coworkers to treat her as equal to them, she likes to “speak my mind if something makes me uncomfortable or if someone says something that's out of line.”

I always get the response that I always get frustrated when I’m around them. They’re like, well, you came into a male dominated industry. I've been told that by my [direct supervisor] to my face. And I'm like, okay, like, that doesn't mean you can’t shut up or change how you say stuff? (Emma)

Contrary to what Emma experienced, Cassie and Samantha view their male command staff in a positive light, claiming they are a “role model” (Samantha) and a “positive influence” (Cassie). During subject interviews, it was apparent that coworker relations between female law enforcement officers and male command staff were also generally positive. Natalie detailed her experience with her command staff as an “open door policy,” implying a general feeling of support and gratitude towards those in charge.

Our [commander], well, in both [commanders] that I've been under, they just do a really good job of making sure that you have the training, the resources, and a very open door policy. I think just the leadership within the department as well as in my division. I've been through you know, this is my second [direct supervisor]. Just the very open, open-door policy come to me we'll take care of it. Very supportive. Whenever, you know anything that's ever happened in my family, my son had to go through another major operation since I've been here, they're very willing to work with us. (Natalie)

Even though several subjects had positive experiences, there was still a downside to male control of the chain of command. In this excerpt, Emma paints a picture of the realities of a department with complete male control and dominance within the chain of command.

Can you imagine one of the platoons wanting a female to go over them? Can you imagine? I'll try to tell one of them to do something for me on scene which they always say take control Emma, take control of your scene. So, I'll tell people to do something. That just means like your primary, tell people what they need to be doing for you as soon as they get the hell out here, right. So, I remember I told somebody at a call. Can you go see what [name redacted] is wanting here? Because I had showed up first and I was with the suspect outside of the business already. So, I was like, I'm gonna stay with him so he doesn’t run away. And you know what I mean? I literally got an eye roll and then he went to go do whatever, I’m like what the hell. Now what is that? It's not because I'm new, well sometimes I don't know. Is it because I'm new or is it because I'm a girl? (Emma)

In alignment with Emma, Jennifer detailed how betrayed she felt from her male command staff in relation to a workplace incident with male coworkers, some of whom were fostering a sexually exploitive environment. The following excerpt highlights how the effects of exploitive sexual rumors and jokes made towards women by their male counterparts within the workplace can heavily affect future employment and progression within the law enforcement workplace.

When I applied for another agency, one of the guys that they accuse me of messing around with the higher ups told the other agency that I had a tendency with this one person, they didn't say with everybody. So, with this one person, they asked me and I said, no, it's not true. And they said, okay, and they weren't worried about it. So obviously, it was getting mentioned. (Jennifer)

Discussion

By using a ground-up coding approach that leveraged an open, axial, and thematic coding process, four themes emerged from the data that was collected: sexual exploitation and harassment, a lack of work-life balance, gender stereotypes, and patriarchal hierarchy and male dominance in the workplace. The summation of the findings indicates that the experiences of all seven respondents who were actively employed at a law enforcement agency in the Southeast Missouri region were heavily impacted by the behavior and attitudes of their male coworkers and command staff personnel. The common themes within the findings were presented an array of gender stereotyping coupled with harassment at almost all levels of law enforcement within the region. Although some respondents did note positive experiences at their employer, most of the experiences that seemed to shape the officers’ work environment had negatively impacted both their personal and professional lives.

Over half of respondents noted that their job also hindered their ability to expand their family planning with respect to adding children. Respondents noted that the idea of starting a family and engaging in child rearing would act as a setback for their careers and would negatively impact their future as a female law enforcement officer. Respondents also touched on the idea that being a mother to a young child and working the dangerous job they do is ‘terrifying.’ Indeed, one respondent detailed her long turn leave from the job due to parental duties that were child rearing focused.

Taken together, these findings suggest that the experience of all of the respondents was heavily impacted by the behavior and attitudes of their male coworkers and male command staff. Respondents consistently noted that their workplace routinely exhibited negative patterns of sexist words and behaviors that has affected their personal work experience. The common themes show a general pattern of gender stereotyping coupled with sexual harassment. Although many respondents did note positive experiences at their employer, several of the experiences that the respondents’ encountered had negatively impacted their personal and professional lives.

Limitations

One of the main limitations of this qualitative analysis is the relatively low number of female law enforcement officers actively employed in the Southeast Missouri region. A low population of actively employed female officers in the field of Southeast Missouri (only 8.7% of law enforcement in Southeast Missouri is female: see United States Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2023) resulted in some difficulty in collecting a sample. The final sample size of seven was at the low end of the target parameter of six to twelve set by Guest et al. (2006) necessary to achieve data saturation. The final sample size is slightly higher than the established minimum, and as such, the researchers believe that sufficient data was gathered to obtain saturation.  Our position is based on the fact that consistent and coherent themes did emerge from the data analytics.  Regardless, the small sample size is a serious limitation that should be considered when evaluating the findings of this investigation.

Another limitation of this project is the possibility of recall bias among respondents. Recall bias occurs when the way an individual recalls past information impacts their future recollection of their experiences in the present moment (Coughlin 1990; Hassan, 2005; Raphael, 1987). In other words, the way an individual self-reports past experiences is dependent on that person’s memory, as well as on their emotions concerning their past memories. In essence, a person may not be able to recall all of their memories accurately or completely during the interview process. It is also the case that due to the sensitive nature of the topic explored in this project, several respondents may have felt uncomfortable or uneasy answering questions of a more personal nature. What this means is that recall bias among respondents may also be tied to a potential fear of employer or coworker retaliation. While all respondents were given pseudonyms and were assured that all identifying factors in the data would be obscured or redacted, the fear of a respondent’s thoughts and feelings being uncovered by their male coworkers or supervisors may have influenced a respondent’s ability to recall past events.

A third limitation to note is the potential for positionality bias on the part of the researchers. Due to the nature of qualitative research, it may be difficult for a researcher to completely detach emotionally from the research being conducted (Brinkmann, 2007; DeMarrais, 2004). As individuals with previous educational, academic, and professional experience within the field of law enforcement, we acknowledge that our positionality most likely influenced this project through our previous experiences despite the steps we took to maintain research objectivity and empathetic neutrality.

A fourth limitation of the current project is that the researchers only collected one form of data, i.e., semi-structured interviews.  As several authors have noted (Creswell & Poth, 2016; Stake, 1995; Yin, 2009), a single instrumental case study approach typically collects multiple forms of data, including (but not limited to) interviews, documents, and observations.  The current project was limited to semi-structured interview for two reasons.  First, the researcher felt that injecting our own perceptions into the process by capturing observations could be impacted by our positionality.  In order to avoid this possibility, the researchers decided to forgo recording observations as a way to let the respondents’ own voices be heard in the data without having to provide our own subjective connotations of the participants.  Second, we chose not to gather any other forms of data out of an abundance of caution, as the disclosure of any other data (i.e., our observations of the respondents, any documents provided by the respondents, etc.) could have potentially been used to identify research subjects.  Indeed, we took great steps to obscure any and all potential identifiers within the data as a way to protect the identities of research subjects.  This was especially important to do given that the Southeast Missouri law enforcement community is both small in number and incredibly tight-knit.

The final issue associated with this project is one of generalizability. Qualitative research relies on accuracy and consistency within data interpretation (Fossey et al., 2002) that is often achieved through the process of data coding. Through a coding system, qualitative data is categorized into specific themes that emerged from the data collection method, which then explicates patterns within the data. However, due to the ideographic nature of qualitive data, generalizability is not possible. The goal in qualitative research is to come to a deeper understanding of a phenomenon that can in turn provide insight to other areas of study, but not achieve the statistical generalizations (Gheondea-Elad, 2014) that one would find in a quantitative project.

Recommendations for Future Research

Readers of this work should account for the limitations discussed in this project when conducting future investigations on this topic. To that end, the first recommendation stems from the relatively small sample size limitation. Expanding the geographical area beyond the borders of Southeast Missouri into other adjoining areas may help to increase the number of respondents that can be gathered into a sample. This strategy may in turn help to produce more data that can be used to expand the themes established in this investigation. Swapping the geographical parameters from rural to urban or suburban may also help to increase the population size from which to sample, even though this would shift the focus of the current research on the rural area of Southeast Missouri. Regardless, a larger geographical area from which to sample may bring to light different issues that impact female law enforcement officers in those geographical areas, and new codes may emerge that either change or dovetail with the findings of this project.

Increasing sample size may also help eliminate the possibility of recall bias. One way to reduce the possibility of recall bias is to employ recall test periods by utilizing shorter and longer periods of interviews and then testing the two for any variances (Coughlin, 1990; Raphael, 1987). Adding follow-ups to the data collection, such as phone calls or subsequent interviews, can also serve to reduce the likelihood of recall bias.

The goal of qualitative studies is to shape the opinion of those who read said qualitative study, as the goal of qualitative research is to obtain new knowledge through an exploratory methodology (Creswell & Poth, 2016). Since qualitative data only reflects the opinion of those sampled and cannot be generalized, the use of a quantitative survey to conduct further research on the topic will help future researchers gather data that can be generalized to a larger population.

While the positionality of the researchers may not have affected the collection of the data gathered during this project, future researchers may wish to address positionality bias by expanding the research team to a minimum of five individuals, including those who do not have experience within the law enforcement system nor have any personal or professional ties to law enforcement. By using an expanded team approach, future researchers can help to minimize the extent their positionality impacts the results.

Implications

Ensuring gender equality in local law enforcement agencies for female employees is important because gender equality promotes a cohesive work environment that fosters a positive grouping of individuals who can address community concerns in a comprehensive and safe manner (McCarty et al., 2007; Viegas & Henriques, 2021). It is also the case that dissatisfied employees in law enforcement agencies have a higher risk of poor work performance, work avoidance, decrease in morale, and engaging in acts that could cause physical injury or legal liability (Paoline & Gau, 2020). As such, we recommend local law enforcement supervisors institute programs that will increase gender equality, as well as increase the number of women in positions of authority within law enforcement agencies in Southeast Missouri.

With that said, the goal of this project is not to persuade law enforcement departments to simply employ and promote more female officers, but rather to help provide information to agencies that will help to correct existing deficiencies faced by female law enforcement officers in Southeast Missouri. Enacting proactive policies, ensuring equitable procedures are enforced, and focusing on creating a workplace culture that will provide a supportive and engaging work environment that fosters gender equality in the workplace will be beneficial for not only women in local law enforcement in the Southeast Missouri region, but everyone in local law enforcement agencies in rural, suburban, and urban areas. Indeed, the employment of women within the law enforcement should be reflective of the communities they serve, as women constitute about half of the population of the United States. This is why employing, promoting, and retaining more women in the law enforcement system in both Southeast Missouri specifically and America more generally will hopefully allow for the withering and eventual abandonment of gender inequality in the law enforcement workplace.

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Contributors

Madeline Marie Whistler holds a Master’s degree in Criminal Justice from the Department of Criminal Justice, Social Work, and Sociology at Southeast Missouri State University. Her academic work explores how women navigate traditionally male-dominated policing, with an emphasis placed on departmental organization and systemic challenges that affect females within their employment in a male dominated profession. Her research has been published in The Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice and Criminology. Beyond research, her current work is focused on raising and educating her two young children while committing to ongoing scholarly and professional development.

Christopher Bradley is currently an Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of Criminal Justice, Social Work, and Sociology at Southeast Missouri State University. His current research interests are focused on the intersection of religiosity and emotion, with a specific emphasis on how empathetic responses vary as a function of religious orientation. He is an expert in a number of different quantitative and qualitative methodological approaches, as well as a variety of statistical applications. Dr. Bradley's research has been published in a variety of peer-reviewed outlets such as Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly, Review of Religious Research, Deviant Behavior, and The Family Journal: Counseling and Therapy for Couples and Families.

H. Hamner Hill is an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Political Science, Philosophy, and Religion at Southeast Missouri State University. He is a philosopher by training and graduated from the College of William and Mary in Virginia with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy where he also received his Juris Doctorate. He also earned a master’s degree in philosophy as well as a doctorate in philosophy from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.  His academic work has appeared in journals such as Law and Philosophy, the Archiv für Rechts und Socialphilosophie, The Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, and the William and Mary Environmental Law Review.