Trajectory of Women’s Advancement in Policing: A Comparative Study Between China and the United States

Abstract

With a comparative lens, this article explores the trajectory of women’s advancement in policing in China and the United States (US), two major countries, one in the Global South and the other in the Northern part of the world. The article describes the rich history of women police in the US and China and compares the development of women policing in these two jurisdictions, which are sharply contrasting in many respects. Starting from the model of women’s stage-by-stage integration into policing developed in the Northern contexts, we examine women’s evolution in police and their local conditions in the two systems. Framed in Southern Criminology and Southern Theory, we conclude that the US model of sexual integration does not apply to China, where traditional cultural norms continue to reinforce women’s gendered roles in policing. More generally, the progress of women is unlikely, nor necessary, to share the same trajectory everywhere.