This paper will go over the pervasive influence of the female gender in Law Enforcement. It will go over the challenges and some solutions to those challenges. The paper will also show how females and police departments overcame some of these challenges.
THE CHALLENGES FEMALE FACE IN LAW ENFORCEMENT
Police Departments years ago would only hire women for clerical roles such as filing and doing paper work or dispatching. The civil rights act change all that making it possible for women to hold the same jobs as the men in law enforcement. Most law enforcement agencies face a lot of different challenges with having a multicultural society. The first challenge is within the recruitment to join the force which involves knowing about the cultural, racial and ethnicity back grounds. More and more minorities are joining the criminal justice fields today such as women, ethnic groups and homosexuals. Women face challenges in the physical side of the hiring practices because a lot of department still are based on the male aptitudes. There are some departments over the years that have change some of their physical test for women. They now set their standards for the female based on the percentile of the national physical ability of females. Females also have the challenges that male counter parts don’t have to deal with and that is prejudices of being a female in the work place. Most police departments have gotten more aggressive on verbal and sexual harassment issues. The departments have come out with strict policies and classes for the officers on this subject. Even though females have challenges on a department most departments have realized that the females play a vital role in the department. The National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives (NAWLEE) is the first organization established to address the unique needs of women holding senior management positions in law enforcement. This Professional organizations for women in law enforcement have existed since 1915, with the International Association of Policewomen (IAP) being the only one exclusively for women at that time. While that organization struggled to maintain membership, in the 1950s, its name was changed to the International Association of Women Police (IAWP), and it saw increases in membership with its international status. This organization was started to help women in the work place and to make sure their rights for advancement were not over looked. It also...