Federal Correctional Officers: Masculinities, Training, and Vulnerabilities

We study how Canadian federal correctional officer recruits identifying as men interpret and experience their masculinities during training. We recognize the correctional officer occupation remains male dominated, despite widespread efforts by governments, organizations, and stakeholders to increase equity, diversity, and inclusion in employment practices—and the need to recruit more women given the recruitment crisis in correctional services internationally. We examine the gendered interpretations that underpin discussions of training, for instance, if the emphasis is on activities and practices that are culturally read as hyper-masculine or, instead, traits such as communication skills, which are often culturally thought to be more feminine—or that fall more comfortably within the notion of inclusive masculinities. Drawing on 76 interviews with correctional officer trainees, we examine how men experience their masculinities during their training through strategic presentation of masculinities that inform and shape but are also shaped by and informed by the training. We demonstrate how inclusive masculinities are performed within the correctional officer training academy and remain part of a contested terrain exploring if they contradict efforts to include women in correctional work or reaffirm a hegemonic ideal advancing elements more traditional understood as masculine.