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7 Feminist Criminology 3 (2012)

handle is hein.journals/femcrim7 and id is 1 raw text is: Doing, Redoing, and Undoing Gender: Variation in Gender Identities of Women Working as Police Officers Feminist Criminology 7(1) 3-23 @The Author(s) 2012 Reprints and permission: Sagepub.com/journalspermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/155708511 1413253 http://fcx.sagepub.com OSAGE Merry Morashl and Robin N. Haarr2 Abstract For a study of police women's identities, qualitative data were generated from in- depth interviews with 21 women working in two metropolitan police departments and varying in race, ethnicity, rank, and tenure. Most women identified female-male differences but noted exceptions. Many felt characteristics concentrated among women enhanced job performance, and men's characteristics damaged performance. Several insisted that sex-category differences in key attributes accounting for good police work were nonexistent or minimal. Women do not simply reproduce old female-male stereotypes and the hierarchies that devalue female-associated traits. They fashion complex, positive occupational identities that are not necessarily tied to their sex category. Keywords gender identity, women, police There is considerable empirical evidence of a persisting belief that police work is an inappropriate job for women; this belief rests on the view that women and men have essentially different characteristics and that only men's characteristics support effec- tive police work. At the same time, in some police departments, individuals recognize a broadened range of qualities required for police officers to do their jobs well. In many 'Michigan State University, East Lansing, Ml, USA 2Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, KY, USA Corresponding Author: Merry Morash, Michigan State University, School of Criminal justice, 560 Baker Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824 Email: Merry.Morash@ssc.msu.edu

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