Twenty-three women officers’ experiences of policing in England: The same old story or a different story?
| DOI | 10.1177/1461355719868490 |
| Date | 01 March 2020 |
| Published date | 01 March 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Twenty-three women officers’
experiences of policing in England:
The same old story or a different story?
Emma Cunningham
Teesside University, UK
Pauline Ramshaw
Northumbria University, UK
Abstract
Our research project was concerned primarily with using a feminist analysis to explore the lived reality of 23 women
police officers in England and Wales. We undertook 23 qualitative interviews with our participants and our research
straddles four decades of policing practice, which allowed us to explore changes that were seen to have taken place during
this period. First, participants discussed their lived reality, which included banter, bullying and harassment for many.
Second, and perhaps more surprisingly, at certain times of unrest, riots or threats, some of our participants were provided
with opportunities, for example, during the IRA threat, the riot in Toxteth and the miners’ strike. We suggest that
examples from our data capture an early disruption of the ‘ideal’ heroic male police officer that Silvestri examines [Silvestri
M (2018) Disrupting the ‘heroic’ male within policing: a case of direct entry. Feminist Criminology 13(3): 309–328] whose
removal from their normal role during periods of socio-political disorder allowed women officers to leave the gendered
division of labour and undertake the heroic police constable role while the men were busy being ‘heroic’ at the source of
threat and unrest. We sought to explore changes such as the uniform as a site of protest for some of our officers who
challenged an uncomfortable and unfit uniform in the early days, and explained that there were still problems with the kit
and design at times. Our findings illustrated that, on the whole, although massive changes had been made, it was a case of
the same old story in terms of sexual harassment and banter for female officers and more was required to address these
issues, which fits with reviews and studies in both England and Wales and in Australia. Finally, we noted using participants’
words how much many of these women had enjoyed their role within policing in spite of these challenges.
Keywords
Women policing, harassment, banter, opportunities, culture
Submitted 17 Jan 2019, Revise received 03 Jul 2019, accepted 16 Jul 2019
Introduction
Our research project was concerned primarily with provid-
ing a snap-shot of policing practice through the lived expe-
rience of 23 women police officers who voiced and
explained their realities of policing. We wanted to know
what it was like for them to be police officers and how they
had managed their role. These officers were currently, or
had been, in the police service in England and Wales.
Although it is not possible to make generalizable
conclusions from this small-scale study, the voices of these
women add to ‘the respectable corpus of work’ that Brown
and Heidensohn (2000: 2) have spoken of. Women’s inclu-
sion into policing has not been a straightforward journey
Corresponding author:
Emma Cunningham, Teesside Uni versity, Clarendon Buildi ng, Middles-
brough, TS1 3BA, UK.
Email: e.cunningham@tees.ac.uk
International Journalof
Police Science & Management
2020, Vol. 22(1) 26–37
ªThe Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/1461355719868490
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