Stuck on a Plateau: Obstacles to Recruitment, Selection, and Retention of Women Police

In the U.S., employment of women police increased significantly from the 1970s to the late 1990s but then hit a plateau around 11-12% of all sworn police. As of 2020, the figure was 14%, which still lags well behind comparable countries. Based on surveys, women police in a three-county region in the U.S. cited the male-dominated police culture, failure to proactively recruit women, and lack of family-friendly policies among the main reasons for the low representation of women. Male police chiefs in the same region were much less likely than women police to see their agencies as unfriendly toward women and less likely to view the police academy as male-dominated and not very woman friendly.