‘Girly-Girls', ‘Scantily-Clad Ladies’, and Policewomen

This chapter presents feminist research that serves as a reminder of the utmost relevance of gender in the world of work today. To begin, widely cited facts and figures on women's position in paid work will be considered along with the argument that there is a need to go beyond these and to engage in the stories and day-to-day challenges that face women in paid work. Women's emancipation in paid work has been celebrated in publication after publication of research findings that go on to describe women's phenomenal progress in various work places. The research involved individual semi-structured interviews with 10 policewomen. Internationally, police organizations are generally institutions that control and protect society through the enforcement of law. However, the institutional ideology within the police force has often been criticized for reinforcing masculine power relations and serving to privilege police work as a male domain.