Gendered Challenges in the Line of Duty: Narratives of Gender Discrimination, Sexual Harassment and Violence Against Female Police Officers

AbstractGender discrimination and sexual harassment of female police officers by their male counterparts remain areas of liability where police departments appeared to have failed to effectively confront the nagging issues. However, the appreciable level of research conducted on these issues in the global North has not been matched by the South, where issues bordering on sexual violence have cultural underpinnings. Drawing from the case of the Nigeria Police Force, feminist analysis was used to explore the lived reality of 43 female officers in a qualitative study. Participants expressed distress in abiding by structural discriminatory regulations against female officers which include non-admittance of married women into the force, forbidding unmarried officers from getting pregnant, and a stipulated minimum of three-year work period before a female officer can marry. Findings also indicated that participants suffer a variety of sexual harassment, intimidation, and, violence from their male colleagues, while they feel constrained in reporting their victimization. Important policy and practical implications requiring the Nigerian police to address hegemonic masculinity and promote gender equality were provided.Keywords: discriminationfemale officersgenderNigeria policesexual harassment Disclosure Statement:[No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).]Notes1 See McGoogan, “Every Woman Police Officer;” Taylor et al., “Sexual Harassment,” NP8456–58; Sands et al., “Police Sexual Violence,” 5; Rabe-Hemp, Female Police, 87–8; Rees and Strange, Real Lives of Policewomen, 122–4.2 See England et al., “Progress toward Gender Equality,” 6990; Hazel and Kleyman, “Gender and Sex Inequalities,” 281–84; SteelFisher et al., “Gender Discrimination,” 1442–1453.3 See Dowuona-Hammond et al., “Women’s Survival in Ghana,” 3; Espi et al., “Gender inequality,” 44–46; Gradin, “Occupational Gender Segregation,” 102–3; Gyasi et al., “Explaining the Gender Gap,” 1089–91; Maunganidze, “Dealing with Gender-related Challenges” 1–3; Scent et al., “Patriarchy on Women Police,” 39–41.4 See Aborisade, “Police Abuse of Sex Workers,” 407–9; “Pandemic Policing,” 6; Aborisade and Oni, “Crime Fighters,” 243–47; “Female Offenders as Victims,” 1182-–1204; Amnesty International, “Rape-The Silent Weapon;” Mbote, et al., “Police Discrimination,” 199–203; Salihu & Fawole, “Police Crackdowns” 40–45.5 See Aborisade, “Influence of Rape Myth,” 155; “Sexual Violence at Music Festivals,” 68–70.6 See Dowler and Arai, “Stress, Gender and Policing,” 123–26; Duxbury et al., “Bringing the Badge Home,” 997.7 See Akinjobi-Babatunde, “Women Police,” 438–440; Oluwafemi, “Gender Inequality,” 433.8 See Aborisade and Oni, “Women’s Inhumanity Towards Women?” 54–56; Buhari et al., “Career Prospects,” 252; Scent et al., “Patriarchy on Women Police,” 44; Yalley and Olutayo, “Gender, Masculinity and Policing,” 7.9 See Ivković et al., “Decoding the Code,” 172–8; Skolnick, “Blue Code of Silence,” 7–11.10 See Aborisade, “Barriers to Rape Reporting,” 6–7; “Survivors' Rape Reporting Experiences,” 6; Tade and Udechukwu, “Characterizing Rapists.”11 See Fernandes, “Women in Policing,” 13; Guajardo, “Women in Policing,” 20–22; Sebire, “Why Gender Equality,” 80–82 ; Server, “Effects of organizational culture,” 6.12 See Acker, “Gendered Institutions,” 567.13 See Dowler and Arai, “Stress, Gender and Policing,” 123–27; England et al., “Progress toward Gender Equality,” 699114 See Taylor et al., “Sexual Harassment,” NP8458115 Taylor Greene and del Carmen, “Female Police Officers,” 385–87.16 Marshall, “Barriers for women,” 6–7.17 See Brodeur, “Female law enforcement officers,” 9; Novich et al., “They can’t search her,” 260–63.18 Morash and Haar, “Gender, Workplace Problems” 113–14.19 See Taylor et al., “Sexual Harassment,” NP845620 See McGoogan, “Every Woman Police Officer.”21 Cunningham and Ramshaw, “Women Officers’ Experiences,” 26–27.22 See Guajardo, “Women in policing,” 25.23 See Verma, “Women Police Officers” 5.24 See Prenzler and Sinclair, “Women Police Officers,” 115–17.25 See National Bureau of Statistics “Statistical report on women,” 64.26 See Onyekwere, “Police regulation, gender inclusiveness” 6.27 See Nnochiri, “Unmarried Female Police Officers” 14.28 The Bill was read for the first time in the Senate on Wednesday, 30th May, 2018.29 Vanguard, “Female police officers,” 35.30 See Buhari et al., “Career Prospects,” 254; Oluwafemi, “Gender Inequality,” 436.31 See Aborisade and Oni, “Women’s Inhumanity Towards Women?” 58.32 See Stanley, “Methodology matters!” 199.33 See Heidensohn, “Future of Feminist Criminology,” 123–24.34 See Renzetti, Feminist Criminology, 13.35 See Cunningham and Ramshaw, “Women Officers’ Experiences,” 26–7.36 See Adetola et al., “Research Methods,” 11; King and Horrocks, Interviews in Qualitative Research, 36.37 See McRobbie, “Politics of Feminist Research,” 46–50.38 See Brown and Heidensohn, Gender and Policing, 242; Chan et al., “Doing and undoing gender” 434; Cunningham and Ramshaw, “Women Officers’ Experiences,” 26–7; Shelley et al., “Gendered institutions,” 356; Silvestri, “Disrupting the ‘heroic’ Male” 309–310; Stroshine and Brandl, “Race, Gender and Tokenism,” 345–47.39 See Maguire and Delahunt, “Doing a Thematic Analysis,” 3353.40 See Guest et al., “Writing up thematic analyses,” 245.41 See Renzetti, Feminist Criminology, 13.42 See Aborisade, “Policing the COVID-19 Outbreak,” 6; Brown and Heidensohn, Gender and Policing, 243–46;; Taylor Greene and del Carmen, “Female Police Officers,” 387; Guajardo, “Women in policing,” 25; Scent et al., “Patriarchy on Women Police,” 39–41.43 See Nnochiri, “Unmarried Female Police Officers,” 26.44 See Akinjobi-Babatunde, “Women Police,” 442; Oluwafemi, “Gender Inequality,” 434.45 See Cunningham and Ramshaw, “Women Officers’ Experiences,” 26–27; Rees & Strange, Voices from the Blue, 98; Stroshine and Brandl, “Race, Gender and Tokenism,” 90.46 See Brodeur, Female law enforcement officers 11; McGoogan, “Every Woman Police Officer”; Taylor et al., “Sexual Harassment,” NP845647 See Aborisade, “Barriers to Rape Reporting,” 6; “Sexual Violence at Music Festivals,” 72.48 See Akinjobi-Babatunde, “Women Police,” 442; Buhari et al., “Career Prospects” 254; Scent et al., “Patriarchy on Women Police,” 43.49 See Rabe-Hemp, Female Police, 89.50 See Okongwu, Perception of Sex Discrimination, 36; Yusuf, “Experience of Sexual Harassment,” 181.51 See Aborisade, “Sexual Harassment,” NP655952 See Bello, “Sexual harrassment in Nigerian,” 63–5.53 See Aderibigbe and Aderibigbe, “Women and Discrimination,” 12.54 See Brown and Heidensohn, Gender and Policing, 242; Oluwafemi, “Gender Inequality,” 43455 See Heidensohn, Heidensohn, “Future of Feminist Criminology,” 123–24.; Cunningham and Ramshaw, “Women Officers’ Experiences,” 27–8.56 See Renzetti, Feminist Criminology, 1557 United Nations, UN Police Gender Initiatives.