Expanding the Canon

In many workplaces across the globe, diversity seems to be a problem, evident in the large disproportion of minorities in positions of power or even in minor company roles.  Specifically, the police force is an organization that struggles with diversity.  These two charts show that, while there has been a slight increase over the decades, much can be done to improve.

Three women Debra Langan and Carrie Sanders (Criminology Professors), and Tricia Agocs (a citizen  in police services for 10 years) wanted to delve into the treatment of women in the Canadian police force to bring awareness towards the issues female police officers often face.  The police force is already a predominantly male profession, so women are an outsider group within the larger organization.  To determine real life examples, Langan et al created a study that featured 16 Caucasian females from across Ontario, Canada.  However small the sample size, most of the women reported a poor work environment, in addition to stating that the culture and management is inadequate and in much need of improvement.  This is evident in the study conducted where “one in five [officers] … think about leaving their current police force from once a week to several times a week”.  Women often push themselves extremely hard, believing that they need to prove themselves more to show that they deserve to be there.  Langan et al want the police departments across Canada to address these issues and more as well as expectations for women due to their unfair treatment.

Many of the articles we have previously explored mentioned the various issues regarding diversity in the workplace.  The examples these 16 women gave to show how they are treated were very eye opening and it became clear how brave they are for staying, especially since many considered quitting.  Langan et al made the internal sexism these policewomen faced very evident in the stories from the article.  This study was conducted in Canada about five years ago.  It is unfortunate that, despite all this evidence showing the problems and where the department can be improved, nothing significant changed.  Problems with diversity within the police force still prevail everywhere.  Three years after the study, this particular TEDtalk, linked below, gives additional evidence on how females face discrimination in the police, only this time, it is focused on the United States.

In this TEDtalk, a policewoman who has been in the force for 25 years reveals that out of all American police officers, only about 13% are women, which has statistically been very steady for around the past two decades.  This number is incredibly low especially given the amount of data the TEDtalk gives that shows how valuable they are.  She states that “policewomen are less likely to use force or be accused of excessive force; they are less likely to be named in a lawsuit or citizen complaint and the presence of a policewoman reduces the use of force among other officers” while still receiving the same amount of force from criminals that male officers do.  Despite all these advantages to women in police departments, they still face all those aforementioned examples of discrimination in the article and TEDtalk.

The reason I chose these pieces of media was to give evidence to our much-researched topic of the lack of diversity in workplaces.  It is important to see these real-world examples, how discrimination impacts daily life, and how little has been done to stop it.  More awareness is necessary to fix this issue, which is why we need to keep spreading the media being researched in class.

Article:

Debra Langan, Carrie B. Sanders & Tricia Agocs (2017) Canadian Police Mothers and the Boys’ Club: Pregnancy, Maternity Leave, and Returning to Work, Women & Criminal Justice, 27:4, 235-249, DOI: 10.1080/08974454.2016.1256254