Promoting Women Police Officers: Does Exam Format Matter?

• Published date: 01 June 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10986111221101892
• Author: Jessica Huff,Natalie Todak
• Date: 01 June 2023

Article

Police Quarterly

2023, Vol. 26(2) 169–193

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/10986111221101892

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Promoting Women Police

Off‌icers: Does Exam Format

Matter?

Jessica Huff

1

and Natalie Todak

2



Abstract

Despite decades of calls to diversify policing, women continue to be underrepresented

in the f‌ield, and this problem compounds when looking up the ranks. One explanation is

that police organizations are “gendered”in that their structures, processes, and

cultures support men’s career advancement over women’s. To investigate this pos-

sibility, we analyzed survey results from 685 women police off‌icers to examine

whether career advancement is inf‌luenced by the composition of an agency’s pro-

motional process. Most agencies used a combination of testing components, with

written exams being the most common, but also a heavy reliance on interviews,

assessment centers, and career portfolios. Exam format had a limited impact on

women’s career advancement, while agency type, age, and education level were all

signif‌icant correlates of women’s interest in promotions and career advancement.

Keywords

police, promotion, supervision, women

Diversity is “one of the oldest and most often proposed police reforms”(Ba et al., 2021,

p. 2), yet women’s representation in the f‌ield has been stuck at 12% for over two

decades (Cordner & Cordner, 2011). This problem compounds when looking up the

1

School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Nebraska, Omaha, NE, USA

2

Department of Criminal Justice, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA

Corresponding Author:

Natalie Todak, Department of Criminal Justice, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1201 University

Boulevard Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35205, USA.

Email: ntod@uab.edu

ranks to supervision (7.29%), management (6.96%), and leadership (2.7%; Shjarback

& Todak, 2019). Although evidence of the benef‌its of gender diversity in policing is

mixed (Archbold & Schulz, 2012), there are many reasons to hire and promote more

women. These include links with improved police-community relations, enhanced

legitimacy, and higher quality services (Barnes et al., 2018;Córdova & Kras, 2020;

International Association of Chiefs of Police, 2011;President’s Task Force on 21st

Century Policing, 2015;Silvestri, 2015;Spillar, 2015), the use of less aggressive tactics

(Rabe-Hemp, 2008a;Schuck & Rabe-Hemp, 2007), reductions in violence against

women (Asquith, 2016;Meier & Nicholson-Crotty, 2006; but see Wentz & Archbold,

2012), improved organizational processes (Schuck & Rabe-Hemp, 2016), and de-

creased perceptions of police corruption (Barnes et al., 2018). Hiring and promoting

more women could also help break down the hypermasculine police culture, which is

linked to a range of negative outcomes includingmisconduct and higher levels of force

(Armacost, 2003;Blumenstein et al., 2012;Paoline & Terrill, 2005;Silver et al., 2017;

Terrill et al., 2003;Wolfe & Piquero, 2011). Finally, while the impact of successful

women police leaders on the recruitment and retention of women has not been studied,

there is evidence from the literature on gender and politics to suggest thatincreasing the

representation of women in leadership positions could elevate interest among women to

join the f‌ield via role modeling (Campbell & Wolbrecht, 2006;Wolbrecht & Campbell,

2017).

However, a glass ceiling exists in policing, stif‌ling efforts to diversify the upper

ranks, the promotional prospects of women off‌icers, and police reform more generally

(Shelley et al., 2011;Silvestri, 2018;Todak et al., 2021). Policing is considered a

“gendered organization”with policies and structures that facilitate men’s successes

over women’s(Heidensohn, 1992). Its structures reproduce the status quo by neu-

tralizing the effects of diversity, reinforcing inequalities, and fostering an environment

that is less positive for (and sometimes hostile to) women (Dodge et al., 2011;Rabe-

Hemp, 2008b;Rief & Clinkinbeard, 2020;Todak et al., 2022). The exclusion of women

in higher ranks of law enforcement is especially problematic given the positive impact

of women leaders (Beaton et al., online f‌irst) and the need for more effective leadership

in policing more broadly (Bishopp, 2013).

One example of a gendered structure is a promotions process that systematically

preferences men over women. The process could, for example, require applicants to

hire a tutor, undergo training outside of work hours, and spend off duty time studying –

all of which would disproportionately limit mothers who are usually the primary

caregivers in their households (Morabito & Shelley, 2018;Yavorsky et al., 2015).

Research also suggests women commonly postpone promotion because, in a male-

dominated environment, they do not feel competitive or conf‌ident until they have

signif‌icantly more experience than the men (Archbold & Schulz, 2008;Morabito &

Shelley, 2018;Todak et al., 2021). The potential inf‌luence of evaluator bias is also

concerning. Some agencies, for example, rank applicants according to performance on

exams, yet discretionarily select ones who may not have placed at the top, inviting

prejudice and opinion to inf‌luence these decisions.

170 Police Quarterly 26(2)