530772

research-article2014

FCXXXX10.1177/1557085114530772Feminist CriminologyKringen

Article

Scholarship on Women and

Policing: Trends and Policy
Implications

Feminist Criminology
2014, Vol. 9(4) 367381
The Author(s) 2014
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DOI: 10.1177/1557085114530772
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Anne Li Kringen1

Abstract
A systematic review of the literature on women and policing for the period of 1972
to 2012 was undertaken to determine how gender was incorporated in research
and how this scholarship changed over time. The analysis indicates that the majority
of research on women in policing is typically directed at understanding the role of
gender in policing. The volume of published research increased over the period, but of
the three major domains of research (job performance, job experience, and blocked
opportunities), the majority of growth occurred in job experience domain. Blocked
job opportunity research, which has important policy implications, experienced only
a moderate increase. The majority of research on women in policing was found
to be published in specialty academic journals including gender specialty journals
and policing specialty journals. The impact of publishing primarily in these outlets is
discussed.
Keywords
women as professionals in the CJS, women, policing, evaluation, disparate treatment

Introduction
Criminological research has predominantly focused on men. Men commit more
crimes, commit more serious crimes, and commit crimes with greater frequency than
women (Messerschmidt, 1997; Steffensmeier & Allan, 1996). As a result, women have
often been ignored in criminological research, and criminological theories have commonly been empirically tested using male-only samples. This approach to understanding crime sparked feminist scholars to assert the importance of studying women
1University

of New Haven, West Haven, CT, USA

Corresponding Author:
Anne Li Kringen, University of New Haven, 300 Boston Post Road, West Haven, CT 06516, USA.
Email: AKringen@newhaven.edu

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Feminist Criminology 9(4)

(Chesney-Lind, 1989; Naffine, 1996). Feminist critiques illustrate that androcentric

research fails to consider the impact of gender on crime and criminal justice.
Importantly, feminist scholars have advocated increasing knowledge about crime and
the criminal justice system through the inclusion of women rather than by ignoring
men (Sharp & Hefley, 2007). These calls for change ultimately led to the emergence
of the field of feminist criminology. Feminist criminology varies from mainstream
criminology in a variety of ways. Because gender is a complex social, historical, and
cultural product (Daly & Chesney-Lind, 1988, p. 504), feminist criminology embraces
distinct theoretical developments, epistemologies, research methods, and policy
emphases that separate it from mainstream criminology (Flavin, 2001).
Beginning with the womens movement in the 1960s, the frequency of published
research on women and crime began to increase, and growth continued over the
subsequent decades (Goodstein, 1992; Sharp & Hefley, 2007). However, despite
the gains in the quantity of published feminist scholarship, some scholars assert
that feminist criminology has failed to impact mainstream criminological thought
due to a conceptual divide between feminist and mainstream criminologists. Flavin
(2001) specifically addressed this issue in a publication in the Journal of Criminal
Justice, by extending an invitation to other criminologists to embrace feminist
scholarship in both understanding and practice. Considering such calls to action in
conjunction with the increased availability of feminist work, it is clear that other
factors must be limiting the transmission of knowledge about gender, crime, and
criminal justice.
One possible factor concerns the way in which gender is utilized in research.
Gender can be included in analyses in several different ways, and the manner of inclusion dictates the type of conclusions that can be drawn. Some research incorporates
gender in an attempt to answer questions about how women relate to crime and criminal justice. Nevertheless, other research either fails to include gender at all or includes
gender as a control variable only. Failing to include gender ignores the possibility of
gender differences, but including it as a control variable essentially acknowledges that
women and men are different while denying that the difference is worthy of further
investigation. Feminist scholars have studied the way in which gender is incorporated
into research to understand this phenomenon.
Sharp and Hefley (2007) studied how women were included in the analyses of
articles published in the three most highly ranked criminology journals in the
United States from 2000 to 2004. Studies that did not include gender or used gender
as a control variable were classified as not female sensitive. In contrast, studies
that used such techniques as analyzing females only, including separate analyses
for men and women, or using gender as a moderating variable were classified as
female sensitive approaches. The authors found that most studies were not female
sensitive with the majority of studies including gender as a control variable only,
and that research published in journals with a criminal justice orientations (in contrast to journals with criminological orientations) was less likely to use a female
sensitive approach. Ultimately, the authors concluded that only 15% of studies provided any real insights into how women and men differ regarding crime and

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criminal justice. Their research supported the conclusions from Hannon and
Dufours (1998) comparison of changes in the use of gender in criminological
research. Hannon and Dufour compared early research published in criminology
journals (1974-1978) with later research (1992-1996). While the authors found that
research in the later period was more likely to include women in the analyses, attention to gender differences was actually greater in the earlier period as the later
research was largely defined by the use of gender dummy variables included for
statistical control only.
Another possible factor limiting the transmission of knowledge derived from feminist scholarship involves where research on women, crime, and criminal justice is
published. Multiple studies have concluded that, while there have been gains in the
number of feminist criminology articles, the majority of these studies are still published in specialty journals (e.g., Women and Criminal Justice, Gender and Society,
Violence Against Women, Feminist Theory) (Flavin, 2001; Sharp & Hefley, 2007). In
addition, scholarship on feminist criminology that has been published in mainstream
journals has often been published in special issues that focused solely on women and
crime. Finally, a large body of feminist criminology scholarship has been published in
books rather than journals. The tendency for feminist scholarship to be published outside of mainstream journals has been criticized as marginalizing feminist knowledge
and isolating it from mainstream scholars. Flavin (2001) described the situation as
feminist criminologists holding their own dance characterized by publishing in outlets read primarily by other feminists, sitting on panels composed of like-minded
scholars, and disseminating their knowledge through teaching specialized classes on
gender.

Rationale for the Study

At the core of feminist criminology lies a commitment to research that has implications for both policy and action. Daly and Chesney-Lind (1988) associated feminist
criminology with the development of a set of strategies for change (p. 502), and
some feminist scholarship research has been influential. While feminist criminologists
are well known for work on violence against women, feminist research has influenced
policy and practice in several other areas as well (Flavin, 2001). Feminist scholarship
has highlighted the impact of the war on crime on women (Chesney-Lind, 1998); the
unforeseen consequences of gender-neutral policies, such as sentencing, on women
(Raeder, 1993); and the impact of civil forfeiture laws on women (Massey, Miller, &
Wilhelmi, 1998) in addition to more traditional womens issues such as the relationship between drug use and pregnancy (Humphries, 1999). The commonality of this
research is the focus on the unique challenges faced by women in an environment of
social change.
One area of substantial change for women has been greater integration into the
workforce, and this change has manifested in the field of criminal justice as well. Over
time, women have been integrated into various positions within the courts, correctional agencies, and police departments. Throughout this process, women have faced

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Feminist Criminology 9(4)

distinct challenges within each arena. However, female integration into the policing
profession has been particularly difficult due in part to the masculine hegemony of
policing and a pervasive belief that the profession requires overt masculinity. These
biases have served to marginalize women as they started making inroads into the profession in the 1960s. Despite challenges, women were integrated into patrol alongside
men during the 1970s and 1980s, and the number of women employed as police officers increased for several decades. Unfortunately, this progress plateaued, and the percentage of women in the profession has remained relatively stable for the last 15 years
(Cordner & Cordner, 2011; National Center for Women and Policing [NCWP], 1999).
Currently, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigations (2012), women make up
only 11.9% of police officers in the United States. This percentage varies by department, and larger departments employ higher percentages of women. From 1990 to
2000, the percentage of sworn female officers employed by large city police departments rose from 12.1% to 16.3% (Reaves & Hickman, 2002). Federal law enforcement agencies also employ more female officers. From 1996 to 2008, the number of
sworn female federal officers increased from 14.0% to 15.5% (Reaves, 2012). Despite
gains in these areas, the vast majority of agencies remain overwhelmingly male, consisting of less than 15% women (Archbold & Schulz, 2008).
This underrepresentation of women within the policing profession has been noted
as an important policy issue. The NCWP, a division of the Feminist Majority
Foundation, has strongly advocated for the employment of more women as police
officers in the United States. The NCWP asserts that more female officers will help
reduce deviant behavior and brutality, promote the use of communication over physical force, and will improve law enforcement response to certain types of crime like
domestic violence. Several practitioners echo these sentiments. Theresa M.
Melchionne, a former New York City Police Department (NYPD) commissioner,
stated, It is my firm conviction, as a police administrator, that women have a unique
and vital role to play in American law enforcement (Melchionne, 1967, p. 257).
Despite these calls, women remain underrepresented in policing, and there is limited
understanding of why this situation persists.
One limitation of research on policing is that it has been dominated by male
researchers who have focused mainly on male officers. As a result, the existing understanding of policing is androcentric, and, in most of this research, women are treated
as others. Feminist scholars have attempted to overcome this limitation. Feminist
researchers have focused on the role of gender within police organizations, the different behaviors of men and women in the field, and the advantages that female ways of
knowing bring into the profession. In general, the research has attempted to capture
the unique experiences and challenges faced by female officers, which had previously been excluded from most policing research. While feminist criminologists disagree on how female officers should best navigate the policing profession (Schulz,
2004), feminist criminology has highlighted the less-researched experiences of
female officers.
Several reviews of the literature on women and policing have summarized the
major findings on women in policing (see, for example, Archbold & Schulz, 2012;

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Corsianos, 2009; Hassell, Archbold, & Schulz, 2011). Research has shown that female
officers perform their duties as well as their male counterparts (Archbold & Schulz,
2012). There is also evidence that female officers differ from male officers in their use
of force (Brandl, Stroshine, & James, 2001; Garner, Schade, Hepburn, & Buchanan,
1995; NCWP, 2002), in their likelihood of being involved in corruption (Lersch,
2002), and in their ability to use communication to resolve disputes (Eagly & Steffen,
1986; NCWP, 1999). Furthermore, evidence suggests that police work frequently
involves activities that are socially constructed as feminine (Martin, 1999; Martin &
Jurik, 2007) with approximately 80% of police work involving activities typically
associated with social work such as resolving disputes and problem solving (Corsianos,
2009). Therefore, it has been argued that the vast majority of policing involves tasks
that are potentially more suited to womens socialization (Garcia, 2003).
Despite these efforts by feminist scholars, research on women in policing has had
limited influence on policies to increase the representation of women within the
policing profession. Considering the policy-oriented objectives of feminist criminology, this limitation deserves attention. Specifically, is it possible that research on
women in policing remains isolated from the mainstream understanding of policing
due to the same constraints that limit the transmission of other areas of feminist
research in criminology. To understand whether this is the case, the following study
was conducted to evaluate the major trends in research on women in policing. This
assessment provides insights into the quantity, dissemination, and focus of past
research with the goal of developing insights into fruitful areas for future research on
women and policing.

Method
A systematic literature review was conducted to assess trends in research on female
police officers over the last 40 years (1972 to 2012). The search included scholarly
peer-reviewed journals, trade journals, books, reports, and dissertations. The search
was conducted in multiple electronic bibliographic databases including Criminal
Justice Abstracts, Genderwatch, National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS)
abstracts, Sociological Abstracts, and SocINDEX.
The following keywords were queried: women and policing, female and policing,
female and officer, women and officer, gender and officer, gender and policing, women
and law enforcement, female and law enforcement, and gender and law enforcement.
As necessary, wildcard searchers involving an asterisk were utilized to truncate and
find variants of words. In addition, websites from policing organizations were searched
for relevant literature including the International Association of Chiefs of Police
(IACP), the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), the International Association
of Women Police (IAWP), the NCWP, and the Police Foundation.
The search resulted in a total of 7,686 records. The data were extracted utilizing
software from the Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Coordinating
Centre (EPPI-Reviewer 4) and a duplicates report was conducted. A total of 918 duplicates were identified and removed from the results. After this search for duplicates,

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Feminist Criminology 9(4)

Duplicates
removed
918

Inial search results

7,686

Potenal includes
6,768

Abstracts
screened

Others
added
3

Publicaons
evaluated
604

Academic
journal
arcles
372

Trade
journal
arcles
68

Books
142

Excluded
for focus
6,167

Other
22

Figure 1. Sample selection process.

6,768 records with a title and abstract were identified and coded in terms of their eligibility for analysis. Eligible studies met the following criteria:
1.
2.
3.
4.

published between 1972 and 2012,

written in English,
general research on police that included gender in the analysis, or
studies where female police officers were the focus of the research.

Applying the above criteria for study inclusion, 6,167 studies were excluded. The
majority of these studies were excluded because they involved women and police
rather than female police officers. For example, many of the excluded studies focused
on female offenders or female victims and their interactions with police. Finally, three
studies were added based on personal knowledge of the material. The final sample
consisted of 604 studies meeting the above criteria. The process for sample selection
is illustrated in Figure 1.

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These studies were analyzed with the goal of providing answers to the following
questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

What types of publications featured the research?

To what extent was the research published in specialty journals?
How was the research divided between major themes?
How much of the research featured gender as the primary focus?
How have the outlets and themes of published research on women in policing
changed over time?

To address each of these questions, individual studies were reviewed and coded
according to a fixed set of criteria. First, each study was coded for the type of publication. The categories for type of publication included academic journals, trade journals,
books, and other written materials. In addition, studies published in academic journals
were then coded to capture the specific type of academic journal. These categories
included police specialty journal, gender specialty journal, general criminology or
criminal justice journal, and other academic journal (e.g., psychology, sociology). In
comparison with police specialty journals and criminology and criminal justice journals, gender specialty journals did not necessarily focus on criminology or criminal
justice. Journals with a focus on gender outside of the criminal justice field were
included in this category in addition to gender specialty journals within criminology
such as Women & Criminal Justice.
Second, each study was reviewed for content and coded thematically according to
the theme of the study. The categories for this analysis were derived from the review
of the literature on women in policing conducted by Archbold and Schulz (2012). In
their review, Archbold and Schulz placed the research on women in policing into two
general areas. The first area included the similarities and differences between male and
female police officers. This area included research examining whether women perform as officers in the same way as men across a variety of policing tasks (e.g., decision making, use of force, use of communication, etc.). For the present analysis,
studies fitting into this category were coded as job performance research.
The second area utilized by Archbold and Schulz (2012) included research on the
workplace experiences of female police officers. This encompassed experiences of
female police officersincluding acceptance by male officers, perceptions of fairness,
sexism, support for other female officers, and general acceptance by public. In addition, this area included research on the opportunities available to female officers
including reasons for entering the profession, special duty assignments, and promotion
of women to higher ranks. Because opportunities may have a greater impact on the
representation of women in policing than other job experiences, for the present analysis this category was subdivided into job experience research and blocked opportunity
research. Studies that focused on the experiences of being a female officer such as
acceptance into the profession, perceptions of fairness, and unique effects of the job on
women were coded as job experience. Studies that focused on issues such as hiring,
retention, promotion, and assignment were coded as blocked opportunity research.

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The coding of each study reflected the primary focal point of the research. For example, if the focus of a study was sexual harassment within policing, it was coded as job
experience. However, if the focus of a study was promotional barriers and sexual
harassment was determined to be a barrier, the study was coded as blocked opportunity. Studies not fitting into any of the three categories were coded as other.
To assess whether gender was the primary focus of the study, three coding categories were created. Studies were coded as either having a gender focus, highlighting a
gender finding, or simply including gender in analysis. The first category, genderfocused, included articles where the study was specifically designed to assess some
aspect of gender in policing. In these studies, the research questions specifically pertained to gender, and the title often mentioned a gender focus. The second category,
highlighting a gender finding, consisted of studies where gender or sex was a secondary focus in a study that primarily focused on other research questions. In these studies, a finding related to gender was highlighted (often featured in the abstract), but
other findings were deemed more central. The third category, including gender in the
analysis, consisted of studies where the research questions did not specifically pertain
to gender, yet gender was included in the analysis. Unlike the previous category, studies coded as including gender in the analysis simply used gender as a control variable
and any findings specific to gender were not emphasized. For example, research concerning the influence of individual characteristics on job-related behavior would often
include sex as one of the characteristics while failing to discuss the implication of any
observed differences related to gender. Finally, the records were coded according to
the geographic location of the study data. Studies were coded as either using data from
within the United States or as using data from outside the United States.
Analysis of the data involved calculating percentages for each categorical measure
relating to each of the research questions. In addition, the categorical data on journal
type were disaggregated by thematic focus to allow comparison of the distribution of
thematic focus between journal types. Finally, two sets of analyses were undertaken to
determine the change in the focus of the literature over time. The first analysis compared descriptive statistics indicating the relative levels of scholarship for two time
segments. The first segment included observations from 1972 to 1992; the second
segment included observations from 1993 to 2012.
There were two reasons for using 1992 as the cut point. First, 1992 is the midpoint
in the sample. Thus, it breaks the series into simple first and second halves for comparison. The second reason is more substantial. In 1992, policing as a profession came
under a new type of scrutiny. After the Rodney King incident and the Report of the
Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department issued in 1991, a
new focus on diversity and transparency was mandated in police organizations. The
Report of the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department
(Christopher & Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department,
1991) noted that women use a style of policing that resulted in lower rates of excessive
force. In response to the media coverage of the events, the findings of the Commissions
report, and the increased pressure on police agencies to be more accountable, the environment of policing was substantially changed.

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Figure 2. Thematic focus by journal type.

The second analysis involved examining published scholarship by year to assess

the trends over time. This analysis provides a description of the increases in the rates
of publication of studies on women and policing. Furthermore, disaggregation of the
trends by thematic focus provides insights into changes in research topics over time.
Such trends can provide insights into issues regarding the policy relevance of existing
scholarship.

Findings
Of the 604 publications concerning women and policing during the period from 1972
to 2012, 372 were articles published in academic journals, 68 were articles published
in trade journals, 142 were books, and 22 were other print materials (e.g., dissertations, conference proceedings, etc.). Of the 372 scholarly articles published during the
40-year time period, 83.2% of the articles were published in policing specialty journals, gender specialty journals, or general criminology and criminal justice journals. A
total of 134 articles (36% of total academic articles) were published in policing specialty journals, while a total of 68 articles (18.3% of total academic articles) were
published in gender specialty journals. A total of 107 articles (28.8% of total academic
articles) were published in general criminology or criminal justice journals. The top
five academic journals publishing articles on women and policing were Women and
Criminal Justice (49), Journal of Criminal Justice (29), Journal of Police Science and
Administration (29), International Journal of Police Science and Management (19),
and Police Quarterly (17). In total, 464 of the publications studied women and policing issues in the United States, and the remaining 140 studied women and policing
outside the United States.
Regarding thematic focus, job experience was the largest topic area with 270 publications. Blocked job opportunity was the second largest topic area with 176 publications. Job performance was the smallest of the three main categories with 104
publications. Fifty-five publications presented research outside these three main topic
areas (e.g., historical perspectives, general overviews, etc.). The distribution of thematic content for academic and trade journals is presented in Figure 2.

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Table 1. Mean Publications per Year During 1973 to 1992 and 1993 to 2012.

Mean publications per year

Academic
Trade
Mean job performance studies per year
Academic
Trade
Mean job experience studies per year
Academic
Trade
Mean job opportunity studies per year
Academic
Trade

1972-1992

1993-2012

5.00
4.14
0.86
0.95
0.81
0.14
2.10
1.76
0.33
1.67
1.33
0.33

16.70
14.20
2.50
2.85
2.65
0.20
8.20
6.95
1.25
4.25
3.65
0.60

Gender was the primary focus in the vast majority of articles (81.4%). Few articles (4.8%) highlighted a finding about gender when the research was not primarily
focused on gender, although the tendency to include gender while failing to address
its importance was still present in multiple studies (13.8%). The percentage of studies with a primary focus on gender did not significantly differ by thematic focus with
job performance research primarily focusing on gender in 72.6% of studies, job
experience research primarily focusing on gender in 87.0% of studies, and blocked
opportunities research primarily focusing on gender in 79.8% of studies. The percentage of studies primarily focusing on gender was significantly lower in mainstream criminology or criminal justice journals (72.9%) and in policing specialty
journals (78.5%) than in gender specialty journals (100%), although gender specialty journals actually published the smallest number of studies focusing on gender
and policing (68 studies). Policing specialty journals published 106 total studies
primarily focusing on gender compared with 78 such studies in mainstream criminology and criminal justice journals.
The journal analysis of the two time periods, 1972 to 1992 and 1993 to 2012, indicated that substantially more scholarship was produced in the later period. This finding
was consistent across journal typewith academic journals publishing 3.49 times as
many articles and trade journals publishing 2.91 times as many articles in the second
time period. The finding held regardless of the study focus, with the exception of job
performance studies published in trade journals that showed only a minimal increase
from 0.14 to 0.20. Job experience studies showed the greatest increase between time
periods with 3.90 times as many publications in the latter period. The results of the
period analysis are presented in Table 1.
The trend analysis resulted in findings that were consistent with the previous analysis. The trend analysis showed that total scholarship on women and policing had
increased over the 40-year period. Disaggregating the overall trend by focus area

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Figure 3. Quantity of scholarship by focus area over time.

yielded more informative results. The disaggregated trends indicated that scholarship
on job performance had increased little over the period. Scholarship on blocked job
opportunities likewise showed minimal increases. However, research on job experience demonstrated substantial increases over the period. The disaggregated trends are
presented in Figure 3. Moving averages are presented to remove short-term volatility.

Discussion
This systematic review of the literature indicates that, overall, scholarship on women and
policing has increased. While there have been increases in the quantity of research published concerning women and policing, the majority of the increase can be attributed to
research related to job experiences published in academic journals. Most of the research
on female officers published in academic journals has been published in policing specialty journals. General criminology and criminal justice journals were the second largest outlet. Gender specialty journals published the fewest total articles on women and
policing of the three categories. However, Women & Criminal Justice, a gender specialty
journal, was the single largest outlet publishing 49 articles over the period.

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Considering these findings, the importance of specialty journals as outlets for

research on women in policing cannot be overlooked. Specialty journals (both policing and gender) account for 65.3% of the academic articles published. Taking into
account the ratio of general criminology and criminal justice journals to specialty journals, these findings suggest that articles on women and policing are underrepresented
in general criminology and criminal justice journals. While research within specialty
journals may reach other individuals with common interests, general criminology and
criminal justice journals offer the opportunity to reach a wider audience.
The tendency for research on women in policing to be published in specialty journals illustrates that the knowledge generated by the research likely remains peripheral
to mainstream criminology. The marginalization of findings related to women in policing perpetuates the situation where what is known and taught about policing consists
of what is known about men in the profession. This situation mirrors the problem seen
in other aspects of criminology where educational efforts are primarily focused on
male behavior (Goodstein, 1992). Another related problem is that the current trends in
publication suggest that the knowledge generated about female officers may not be
informing the field of policing. Although a substantial proportion of the research on
women in policing is published in policing specialty journals, research indicates that
police practitioners are unlikely to get their information from academic journals
including those specializing in policing. Rather, they are more likely to get their information from trade journals that summarize research findings (Rojek, Alpert, & Smith,
2012). Few studies on women and policing are actually published in trade journals
limiting the transmission of this knowledge from researchers to practitioners.
This is particularly problematic in areas where research can directly impact policy.
Currently, police organizations struggle with issues such as blocked job opportunities
for women, and studies that focus on the barriers to hiring, retaining, and promoting
women could help address these problems. Considering the policy and action focus of
feminist criminology and the issues faced by women in policing today, it is clear that
generating and disseminating knowledge about these issues is a critical task for feminist researchers. The moderate increase in research directed at blocked opportunities
demonstrated by this review provides an example of an area where additional research
is needed. Furthermore, the findings of this study indicate that even the limited volume
of research available has failed to make its way into trade journals read by practitioners. Together, these two issues result in a situation where there is little empirical work
available to practitioners to help guide policies aimed at increasing opportunities for
women and improving the experiences of female police officers.
One of the tenets of feminist scholarship is to maintain an activist scholarship. For
this to occur, feminist scholars should consider the publication outlets necessary for
their research to inform practitioners, both male and female, and to aid in policy
change. While peer-reviewed journals are often the golden standard for tenure and
promotion, practitioner journals or online practitioner outlets, such as Police One, may
provide a louder mouthpiece for the issues and challenges still facing female officers.
Peer-reviewed journals and practitioner outlets are often seen as mutually exclusive;
however, this view does not need to define reality. Peer-reviewed journal articles can

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be summarized and synthesized for an audience of police professionals allowing for

better dissemination. Journal articles with a focus on opportunities would best suit
these types of outlets, especially if they include policy recommendations.
If feminist criminology chooses to embrace the role of guiding policy to improve
womens opportunities in policing, then the field must reflect on the type of research
questions that are important to achieving this goal and the proper outlets for disseminating the findings. While research on the experiences of female officers continues to
support the pervasive existence of hegemonic masculinity within policing, experiencerelated research questions fail to shed light on specific ways in which womens position in policing can be improved. By focusing research questions on policy issues and
publishing the results as summaries in trade journals in addition to academic journals,
feminist scholars are more likely to discover opportunities to effect change while still
fostering a better understanding of the female officer experience.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship,
and/or publication of this article.

Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of
this article.

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Author Biography
Anne Li Kringen is an assistant professor in the Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice and
Forensic Sciences at the University of New Haven. Her research focuses on the role of gender
and inequality in criminal justice with a specific interest in women in policing. Her current work
concentrates on recruiting and applicant processing within police organizations and the effect of
these processes on women interested in joining the profession.

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