Career prospects of undergraduate female students in the Nigeria Police Force
| Author | Adeyinka A Aderinto,Usman A Ojedokunand,Maryam T Buhari |
| DOI | 10.1177/1461355718816714 |
| Published date | 01 December 2018 |
| Date | 01 December 2018 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Career prospects of undergraduate
female students in the Nigeria
Police Force
Maryam T Buhari
(Department of Sociology,) University of Ibadan, Nigeria
Usman A Ojedokunand
(Department of Sociology,) University of Ibadan, Nigeria
Adeyinka A Aderinto
(Department of Sociology,) University of Ibadan, Nigeria
Abstract
The percentage of women serving in the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) is still small despite efforts to reduce the gender gap.
Against this background, this study examined undergraduate female final-year students’ career prospects in the NPF.
Expectancy theory was utilised as a theoretical framework. Data were generated through the use of questionnaires and in-
depth interviews with 310 female final-year students at two federal universities who were selected through a multistage
sampling technique. Although respondents were familiar with police duties, the majority (72%) were unwilling to join
the NPF. Also, a connection exists between perceived gender roles and respondents’ future career prospects in the NPF
(
2
¼24.411; P¼0.000066). The NPF should exert more effort towards breaking the masculine-occupation overtone
associated with policing.
Keywords
Career, female undergraduates, policing profession, gender role, Nigeria Police Force
Submitted 12 Apr 2018, Revise received 20 Jul 2018, accepted 12 Nov 2018
Introduction
Female police officers still constitute a minority in the
Nigeria Police Force (NPF) more than five decades after
the pioneering set of women was recruited into the organi-
sation. Despite increasing recognition of the important
roles that female police officers play in society, and for-
mulation in 2012 of the NPF’s gender policy designed to
reduce the gender gap, the percentage of enlisted female
officers is still very small compared with their male coun-
terparts (Alemika and Agugua, 2001; Omotayo et al.,
2013). Indeed, a breakdown of the most recent statistics
regarding the composition of NPF personnel indicates that
men constitute 87.6%of officers, whereas women account
for only 12.4%(NPF/UN/WOMEN/UNFPA, 2010) . The
existing wide gender gap in NPF personnel makes design
of a results-oriented framework through which more
women can be attracted into the organisation desirable. In
addition, the increasing number of female suspects being
processed through the criminal justice system in Nigeria
(Ehiemua, 2014) makes it necessary to enlist more female
police officers as a way of enabling the NPF to adequately
meet the demands placed upon it.
Corresponding author:
Usman A Ojedokun, Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan, Iba-
dan 200284, Nigeria.
Email: uaojedokun@gmail.com
International Journalof
Police Science & Management
2018, Vol. 20(4) 251–258
ªThe Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/1461355718816714
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