Women in Law Enforcement

This paper reviewed women in law enforcement today and their evolution into the field. The research highlighted obstacles that currently exist for their hiring and promotion. Policewomen have made significant progress in their numbers across the nation, but law enforcement is still typically seen as a male-dominated profession. For women who have chosen to make it a career, barriers exist that some argue as discriminatory practices. The problem is that even though research has shown the numerous advantages of hiring women police officers, females are very much under-represented in the profession. In addition, it is difficult to ignore the supportive research that a glass ceiling may exist for women who try to pursue advancement within their organizations. The purpose of this research was to show that male and female applicants are not provided an equal opportunity for both hiring and promotion. The research method utilized to explore this project included the review of literature from newspapers, periodicals, surveys, and the World Wide Web. The questions were; (1) Are men and women hired and promoted with equal consideration? (2) Why are the percentages of women in law enforcement an