The Effect of Rank on Police Women Coping With Discrimination and Harassment
| Author | Robin N. Haarr,Merry Morash |
| DOI | 10.1177/1098611113489888 |
| Published date | 01 December 2013 |
| Date | 01 December 2013 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
research-article2013
Article
Police Quarterly
16(4) 395 –419
The Effect of Rank on
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Police Women Coping
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DOI: 10.1177/1098611113489888
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With Discrimination and
Harassment
Robin N. Haarr1 and Merry Morash2
Abstract
Qualitative data from 21 in-depth interviews with women in two metropolitan
departments reveals how rank and tenure affected responses to negative coworker
actions and attitudes. Most women abandoned putting up with harassment and bias
after their earliest years in policing, but consistently felt compelled to respond to
officers’ tests of their abilities. High-rank women used coping strategies that provided
some protections from assaults on their identities and negative treatment from
coworkers. Certain coping strategies may enable some women to move up in rank.
The power that comes with rank enabled women to take on unique approaches to
addressing workplace discrimination and harassment.
Keywords
police women, workplace problems, coping strategies
Introduction
Numerous studies show that police women experience particularly high levels of
coworker and supervisor gender-related prejudices, stereotyping, discrimination, and
harassment (e.g., Brown & Grovel, 1998; Franklin, 2005; Hassell & Brandl, 2009;
Morash, Haarr, & Kwak, 2006; Rabe-Hemp, 2008, 2009; Seklecki & Paynich, 2007).
As a result they receive less social support on the job (Davis, 1984; Fry & Greenfield,
1980; Greene & del Carmen, 2002; Morash & Haarr, 1995; Worden, 1993). Research
on multiple occupations confirms very negative outcomes of such gender-related
prejudice and discrimination on health and productivity of female employees
1School of Justice Studies, Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, KY, USA
2School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
Corresponding Author:
Robin N. Haarr, Professor, School of Justice Studies, Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, KY, USA.
Email: Robin.Haarr@eku.edu
396
Police Quarterly 16(4)
(McDonald, 2012). For instance, women who feel they have not been promoted at
work due to gender bias disproportionately suffer poor health (Nelson, Campbell
Quick, Hitt, & Moesel, 1990; Nelson & Quick, 1985; Morrison & Glinow, 1990), and
sexual harassment contributes to poor physical and mental health and symptoms of
post-traumatic stress disorder (Willness, Steel, & Lee, 2007). Work-related stress addi-
tionally contributes to the negative organizational outcomes, including low productiv-
ity, turnover, and absenteeism (Cooper & Payne, 1988; Cooper, Kirkcaldy, & Brown,
1994; Moyle & Parkes, 1999; Parker & Sprigg, 1999; Parkes, 1990; Willness, Steel, &
Lee, 2007).
Substantial scholarship carried out to test and develop a seminal psychological
theory, the transactional theory of stress and coping (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984),
focuses on coping with stressful interactions at work (and elsewhere). Transactional
theory explains whether and how individuals perceive actions as harassment or dis-
crimination, and how they react when they see such negativity. Even though the theory
includes propositions linking status-related resources to people’s vulnerability to per-
ceived stressors (Fitzgerald, Hulin, & Drasgow, 1994), few studies have considered
how status affects women’s reactions to gender-related affronts at work.
When research conducted within a variety of theoretical frameworks explores
women’s responses to negativity at work, it usually ignores women’s heterogeneity in
characteristics such as status in the workplace (Gyllensten & Palmer, 2005). Thus, the
present qualitative study provides detailed information on how, during their careers,
policewomen differing in rank responded to negative coworker actions and attitudes
toward women. Nationally, the proportion of sworn police who are women remains
small, at 11.8% overall, though differently sized jurisdictions vary, and women make
up 18.1% of sworn police in the 10 largest cities (Sourcebook of Criminal Justice
Statistics, 2010). The most recent available statistics show that women are further
underrepresented in police promotions to high ranks (National Center for Women in
Policing, 2002; Silvestri, 2006). One study (Silvestri, 2007) demonstrates that women
in police leadership tend to promote transformational change more than men. Of par-
ticular interest in the present study is whether the power that comes with rank leads
policewomen to take on unique approaches to addressing discrimination and harass-
ment, thereby having unique effects on police organizations.
Such knowledge has utility. Over time, perhaps as they gain rank and experience,
women officers may shift toward using previously untried or unavailable methods of
confronting and changing hostile work environments. Rank brings legitimate and
expert power (French & Raven, 1959) that may enable women to confront gender-
related problems at work. Alternatively, particular coping strategies may enable
women to move up in rank within a department, or may cause the retention of women
and thus their longer tenure (Rabe-Hemp, 2009). Thus, the research can provide
insight into whether or not rank frees women to confront undesirable workplace condi-
tions in particularly effective ways, or whether certain approaches to coping with bias
against women characterize those who obtain high rank. The study may illustrate the
organizational benefits of having an increased number of women in leadership posi-
tions within a very male-dominated organization and occupation, and the personal
advantages of some forms of coping for achieving high rank.
Haarr and Morash
397
Relevant Literature
Research establishes two broad categories of response to stressful workplace
interactions—addressing the event and disengaging from it (Compas, Connor,
Saltzman, Thomsen, & Wadsworth, 2001). Addressing problematic interactions
includes expressing emotions, trying to control these emotions, or trying to stop such
events from occurring again to avoid being a future target of prejudice (Miller &
Kaiser, 2001). Based on a review of the relatively limited prior research, Kaiser and
Miller (2004) concluded that women typically do not confront perpetrators or tell peo-
ple in a position of authority about even blatant discrimination or prejudice. However,
these findings have questionable generalizability to women with rank and/or tenure in
police departments. Many study samples in prior research consisted of young college
students. Higher status women and women working in an occupation such as policing,
which requires assertiveness to, for example, make an arrest or direct people in an
emergency, may behave quite differently.
In addition, interaction with and observation of other female employees in the
workplace and repeated harmful events at work appear to shape responses to harass-
ment and discrimination. Seasoned employees’ model, support, or teach alternative
responses. The effect is to influence less seasoned employees to shift away from
avoiding or disengaging and toward more direct efforts to stop negative events
(Lazarus, Dunkel-Schetter, DeLongis, & Gruen, 1986; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984;
Tomaka, Blascovich, Kelsey, & Leitten, 1993). In addition, research suggests that
over time, women who observe pervasive discrimination change their reactions from
disengagement to active strategies (Foster, 2009).
Understanding contemporary policewomen requires data collection in contempo-
rary agencies. In a unique recent study of the connection of tenure to police women’s
workplace experiences, Rabe-Hemp (2008) found that even though women with 10 to
30 years as police described negative early-career events, with time they found accep-
tance by coworkers and many moved up substantially in rank. She emphasized that in
recent years, women with rank and tenure experience less extreme forms of anti-
woman behavior than police in previous times, and that in some departments “enlight-
ened men” grew in number and the “boys club” weakened (p. 263). Changes in
workplace stressors, women’s increased rank, and more women with longer tenure
create a fairly complex, recent departmental context in which to examine women’s
experience of and coping with stressors emanating from gender harassment and
prejudice.
Research on occupations other than policing suggest that occupational status and
position within a place of employment affect how women respond to negative work
environments. Specifically, the female−male differences in coping strategies for con-
fronting stressors at work found in some research (Gianakos, 2000, 2002; Parasuraman
& Cleek, 1984; Vitaliano, Russo, Carr, Maiuro, & Becker, 1985) are not confirmed in
studies that compare women and men with similar positions, occupations, and educa-
tion (Greenglass, 1988; Korabik & Van Kampen, 1995; Long, 1990; McDonald &
Korabik, 1991; Torkelson & Muhonen, 2004). Rank and type of occupation may
empower women to use a greater range of strategies. For instance, in one study,
398
Police Quarterly 16(4)
Table 1. Race-Ethnicity and Years on the Force by Rank for Sample of Female Police
Officers.
Rank
Low rank
High rank
Race-ethnicity
n = 13
n = 8
Caucasian
2 (15.4%)
6 (75.0%)
African American
3 (23.1%)
2 (25.0%)
Latina
5 (38.5%)
0 (0.0%)
Asian
3 (23.1%)
0 (0.0%)
Years on the force
6 to 8 years
3 (23.1%)
0 (0.0%)
...
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