Women in Policing: In Relation to Female Police Officers’ Level of Motivation Toward the Career, Level of Stress, and Attitude of Misconduct

The number of female police officers has increased rapidly in the last two decades. Since policing is traditionally a male-dominated environment, female police officers could face potential gender-based barriers in the workforce. Despite this, the number of female police officers continues to increase. This paper will prove that due to the psychological differences between men and women, gender stereotypes, and police workplace culture, higher levels of stress exist for women than men. Female police officers are also less likely than men to engage in misconduct due to the barriers they encounter in the workplace. The findings match the hypothesis that though female police officers have the same starting motivations as male police officers, their motivation will fade away over time. In addition, even though female police officers engage less frequently in misconduct, they tend to assimilate into the environment after they spend some time in the field.