Kakar / GENDER AND PERCEPTIONS

CRIMINALOF
JUSTICE
JOB PERFORMANCE
POLICY REVIEW / September 2002

Gender and Police Officers’ Perceptions

of Their Job Performance: An Analysis
of the Relationship Between Gender
and Perceptions of Job Performance
Suman Kakar
Florida International University

Using self-report survey methodology, this article examines the relationship between
gender and police officers’perceptions of their job performance. Based on surveys of
217 male and female officers, results show that male and female officers perceive
themselves equally qualified to carry out tasks required in law enforcement, including
administration and supervision. This research suggests that male and female police
officers work equally well on their jobs and there are no significant differences in their
job performance, capabilities, and administration skills even when level of education
and years of experience are controlled.

Historically, law enforcement has been an organized occupation almost

exclusively dominated by men (Horne, 1980; Golden, 1982; Lord, 1989;
Martin, 1980; Palombo, 1992). However, over the past 28 years, women
have increased their representation in sworn law enforcement positions to
13% in 2000, from a low of 2% in 1972 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2000).
This 11% increase has been spread over the intervening years, averaging an
annual gain of less than one-half of 1% per year. In 1978, women in the larg-
est municipal agencies held 4.2% of the sworn law enforcement positions.
Ten years later, in 1988, that number had barely doubled to 8.8% (Martin,
1989a), and it was not until 1993 that police agencies on average had
reached a major benchmark, crossing into the double digits.
Until recently, the role of women in policing, if any, was restricted pri-
marily to assignments of a social welfare nature, including juvenile and
family problems; matron; detection of purse snatchers, pickpockets, and
shoplifters; sexual assault investigators; and clerks (Eisenberg, Kent, &
Wall, 1973). However, since 1972, women have entered mainstream

Criminal Justice Policy Review, Volume 13, Number 3, September 2002 238-256
© 2002 Sage Publications

238

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 Kakar / GENDER AND PERCEPTIONS OF JOB PERFORMANCE 239

policing both on a more equitable basis with White men and in markedly
larger numbers than ever before (Martin, 1991; Potts, 1983). For example,
in 1970, only 2% of all police officers were women, but by 1993, 8.8% of
police officers were women (Reaves, 1996). They also have been placed in
line positions previously limited to only men (Kennedy & Homant, 1981;
Koeing & Juni, 1981; Price & Gavin, 1982; Townsey, 1982).
Today, women comprise only 13% of all sworn law enforcement posi-
tions nationwide, a figure that is a paltry four percentage points higher than
in 1990, when women comprised 9% of sworn officers (Bureau of Labor
Statistics, 2000). Considering that 2000 figures from the Bureau of Labor
Statistics indicate that women account for 46.5% of employed persons older
than the age of 16, they are strikingly underrepresented within the field of
sworn law enforcement (National Center for Women & Policing, 2000). It is
estimated that at the present rate of growth of less than one-half of 1% annu-
ally, women will not achieve parity in law enforcement agencies for several
generations (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2000).
The existing research in the area indicates that although legislation and
court rulings have served as legal catalysts in guaranteeing increasing num-
bers of women in law enforcement professions, legislators and the courts
have not succeeded in eliminating persisting negative attitudes, stereotypi-
cal ideologies, and narrow concepts of equality and justice (Palombo,
1992). The job environment, treatment by others on the job, internal support
for career development, promotion, and other rewards are some of the issues
that still affect female employees in the nation’s law enforcement depart-
ments. The administrative and policy-making level of law enforcement is
still largely controlled by men. Consequently, 1.4% of police officers in the
very top echelons in administrative positions in the uniformed ranks are
women. In the lower supervisory ranks, 2.5% of the lieutenants and 3.7% of
the sergeants are women (Martin 1989b). A more recent survey of 3,000
police departments by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (Reaves, 1996)
revealed that women comprised 8.8% of all full-time local police officers in
1993 compared to 8.1% in 1990 and 7.6% in 1987. Gender integration has
been slowed by the traditional view of law enforcement as a “male occupa-
tion” and by the fact that the opportunities for women to participate in law
enforcement policy making have been limited. Not surprisingly, women are
concentrated in the lowest tier of sworn law enforcement positions. Women
hold 13.7% of line operation positions, but their presence rapidly decreases
in the higher ranks. For example, women hold 10.3% of supervisory posts
and only 7.3% of top command positions (National Center for Women &
Policing, 2000). Despite strong evidence that women and men are equally

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240 CRIMINAL JUSTICE POLICY REVIEW / September 2002

capable of police work (see the summary of studies presented in Martin &
Jurik, 1996), widespread bias in police hiring, selection practices, and
recruitment policies keeps the numbers of women in law enforcement
below where it should be.
The present study was designed to add to the existing research on the
association between gender and police officers’perceptions of their job per-
formance by examining the differences on various job performance catego-
ries between men and women. It adds to existing knowledge by exploring an
association between gender and perceptions of job performance while con-
trolling for the level of education and number of years of experience of sur-
vey respondents.

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Women’s entry into law enforcement in the early 19th century began with
a group of women who volunteered to reform female prisoners’ morals and
provide life skills training to them. These women were called prison
matrons, and they played a major role in the early system of justice (Schultz,
1995, p. 373). Prison reforms were eventually made as a result of the belief
that big cities and notorious men frequently corrupted female inmates. Con-
sequently, prisons for women were located in the countryside and staffed
with women only. On one hand, prison matrons improved the conditions for
female inmates on what had been dire conditions of incarceration and, on
the other, created a new paid profession for women. Unfortunately, the cre-
ation of the prison matron role ended up reinforcing “women’s traditional
role as the caregiver to other women.” It was the fact that “these early
matrons stayed within the then acceptable sexual boundaries even while
ensuring new careers for themselves” (Schultz, 1995, p. 373).
Law enforcement has thus traditionally been regarded as a “man’s job,”
and although women have now been on patrol for three decades, it remains
the case that many policemen still hold highly negative views of police-
women, such as that they are physically incapable, insufficiently aggres-
sive, too emotional, mentally weak, overly naive, and incapable of gaining
the respect of citizens (Balkin, 1988; Bell, 1982; Hunt, 1990; Martin, 1980,
1991; Martin & Jurik, 1996; Palombo, 1992). Because of persistent pater-
nalistic and protective attitudes toward women, police work for women tra-
ditionally consisted mostly of social service activities in which women had
to meet high standards for police employment but received lower wages,
were restricted to a special unit or bureau, and were assigned primarily to

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 Kakar / GENDER AND PERCEPTIONS OF JOB PERFORMANCE 241

clerical, juvenile, or guarding duties (Palombo, 1992). Female police offi-

cers were not promoted except within their own special women’s unit, nor
were they permitted to take the same promotion test as men or perform basic
patrol duties. They could be promoted only within their own bureaus
because, as they were told by their police superiors, they had not had the full
“police experience” of being on general street patrol, notwithstanding the
fact that the same male police administration had refused over the years to
assign women to general patrol and had blocked female police officers’
access to the required experience (Price & Gavin, 1982).
Existing research on gender and law enforcement officers’ recruitment
shows that when police organizations started to admit women, it was not
because they believed that integrating women into policing would contrib-
ute to improved quality of police services; rather, it was due to pressure from
women’s rights groups and courts. Schultz (1995) remarked that female
officers’ presence in law enforcement is felt because of their own determi-
nation and struggle. She argued that women changed their police role
throughout history by drawing on outside social forces and, in recent times,
by relying on the legal system to enable them to work as police officers.
However, acceptance by their male peers has yet to occur.
Despite federal leadership through legislation and lawsuits for full inte-
gration, female officers continue to receive, at best, a cool reception from
many male officers (Worden, 1993). There is strong anecdotal evidence of
hostility toward the idea of female police officers among male officers
(Warner & Steel, 1989). Research tends to point in the direction of the single
largest barrier to increasing the numbers of women in policing to be the atti-
tudes and behavior of their male colleagues. For example, national studies
consistently find that discrimination and sexual harassment are pervasive in
police departments and that supervisors and commanders not only tolerate
such practices by others but also are frequently perpetrators themselves.
Hostile work environments and systemic discrimination keep women from
joining police agencies in more significant numbers and from being pro-
moted up the ranks to policy-making positions, thus perpetuating a style of
policing that is outdated, ineffective, and enormously costly to communities
(National Center for Women & Policing, 1999).
Until relatively recently, women remained in the prescribed traditional
roles in criminal justice, that is, working with “women, children, and type-
writers” (Milton, 1972). As soon as they sought to break out of these con-
fines, serious obstacles appeared. Daum and Jones (1994) reported that
female police officers continue to struggle to gain acceptance from their

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242 CRIMINAL JUSTICE POLICY REVIEW / September 2002

male counterparts. Martin (1992) remarked that although organized resis-

tance has virtually disappeared, many male officers still express skepticism
about women’s capabilities as officers and oppose women’s full integration
into police work.
Research has shown that policewomen are as capable as their male coun-
terparts and in many law enforcement settings are better suited for police
work than are men (Palombo, 1992). Considerable research on female
police officers that has focused on the capabilities of women to perform
police work concluded that women perform equally with men in many tasks
(Molinaro, 1997). The studies demonstrating women’s capabilities have
covered the areas of patrol work (Bloch & Anderson, 1974; Sherman, 1975;
Townsey, 1982) citizen satisfaction (Sherman, 1975), police chief evalua-
tions (Seligson, 1985), physical capability (Townsey, 1982), physical train-
ing receptivity (Moldon, 1985), and the handling of violent confrontations
(Grennan, 1987; Moldon, 1985, 1987).
Other studies on the comparison of male and female officers’ perfor-
mance report some differences in performance between the two groups
(Milton, 1972; Townsey, 1982). Female officers generally avoid escalation
to the use of violence in police-citizen encounters (Grennan, 1987), and
they seem to be better prepared to mediate disputes and less likely to arrest
than male officers—a desirable trait for a police officer engaged in neigh-
borhood policing where proactive and interactive styles of policing are pre-
ferred over reactive policing. It has been argued that women bring an “ethic
of care” to law enforcement. This ethic is seen to translate into police-
women’s possessing greater communication skills and more calming
demeanors and being more empathetic with and better equipped to interact
with citizens (see Bell, 1982, p. 116; Hunt, 1984, p. 288; Martin & Jurik,
1996, p. 93; Sherman, 1973, p. 392). Policewomen, for example, have been
found to engage in fewer acts of violence or excessive force with citizens
(Grennan, 1987; Ho, 1993; Independent Commission on the Los Angeles
Police Department, 1991, p. 83; Sherman, 1973).
Evidence from the research literature review suggests that increasing the
number of women in police departments may reduce the use of excessive
force by police and improve police effectiveness and service to communi-
ties. Consequently, the continued underrepresentation of women in policing
is contributing to and exacerbating law enforcement’s excessive force prob-
lems. The actual and potential liability for cities and states from complaints
of use of excessive force is staggering, with lawsuits costing tens of millions
of dollars of taxpayer money annually. Research conducted within the

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 Kakar / GENDER AND PERCEPTIONS OF JOB PERFORMANCE 243

United States and overseas demonstrates that women police officers tend to
utilize a style of policing that relies less on physical force and more on com-
munications skills. As a result, women are often better at defusing poten-
tially violent confrontations and are less likely to become involved in use of
excessive force situations (Balkin, 1988; Grennan, 1987; Perlstein, 1972;
Sherman, 1975). Female officers also appear to be more willing and more
able to negotiate disputes and thus less likely to resort to force or formal
arrest (Langworthy & Travis, 1994, p. 221). In cases of domestic violence,
female officers tend to view such offenses more seriously than do male offi-
cers—another positive trait required in contemporary law enforcement per-
sonnel (Homant & Kennedy, 1985).
Despite these performance differences, ones that may actually make
female officers more resourceful in carrying out certain law enforcement
responsibilities, research indicates that women in policing continue to be
viewed with skepticism or worse by their male counterparts who oppose
assigning women to patrol (Mengistu, 1994). The old argument continues
to be heard that female officers do not have the physical size or strength to
handle the job (Walker, 1992).
The existing research on this issue also reveals that in entering police
work, women have typically encountered serious difficulties, primarily as a
result of the negative attitudes of men in law enforcement. Male officers
anticipate women failing, and they tend to doubt whether women can match
men in most job skills (Bloch & Anderson, 1974; Horne, 1980;
Remmington, 1981); they do not tend to see female officers as doing “real”
police work (Melchionne, 1976), and they often perpetuate myths about
women’s lack of emotional fitness (Bell, 1982). Often, female police offi-
cers report being harassed and resisted by male officers. Some research
reports that this harassment and resistance is because of the fact that male
officers fear that women would violate departmental (actually, their own)
secrets about police corruption and violence (Hunt, 1990).

RESEARCH FOCUS
This study compares male and female officers’ perceptions about their
job performance on 40 job performance categories to determine if there are
any statistically significant gender differences in law enforcement officers’
perceptions of their job performance skills. The study explores such differ-
ences in job performance in street-level work and supervisory and adminis-
trative tasks.

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244 CRIMINAL JUSTICE POLICY REVIEW / September 2002

RESEARCH DESIGN

Sample
The survey population studied includes police officers in five police
departments1 in a large metropolitan county in a southern state. The selected
county has 30 municipalities, and each municipality maintains a city police
department. There are approximately 5,000 sworn police officers employed
in the county in question. Participation in this study was voluntary. Sealed
surveys along with return envelopes were taken to five police departments,
and the purpose of research was explained to the officers during roll call.
Whoever wished to participate in the study was requested to complete the
survey and mail it back to the researcher. The participating police officers
did not have to write their names on the surveys, and there was no direct con-
tact between the respondents and the researcher beyond the roll call setting.
The sample consisted of male (n = 148) and female (n = 69) officers with
four levels of education: high school, associate’s degree, more than 2 years
of college, and bachelor’s degree. The officers mainly held the rank of
police officer. Only 10 participants held ranks higher than sergeant. Table 1
presents demographic characteristics of the sample.

METHOD
This study utilized the self-report survey methodology. The police offi-
cers were asked to evaluate themselves on a survey questionnaire featuring
40 performance indicators.2 These indicators appeared in the form of a
Likert-type scale, and the respondents were asked to rate themselves on
each indicator on this 5-point scale: 1 = unsatisfactory, 2 = needs improve-
ment, 3 = satisfactory, 4 = above satisfactory, and 5 = outstanding. This
study combined performance indicators used by the Metropolitan County
Employees Performance Evaluation and by other researchers such as Alpert
and Moore (1993), Krimmel (1996), and Kakar (1998). The performance
indicators on the Metropolitan County Employees Performance Evaluation
form focus on three distinct areas: quality of work, work habits, and inter-
personal skills. For this study, additional items concerning professional eth-
ics, integrity, ability to accept and adapt to change, accepting responsibility,
receiving commendations or awards, involvement in voluntary community
work, reprimands or suspensions, knowledge of departmental rules, knowl-
edge of state and federal laws, problem-solving skills, report writing and
communication skills, reaction to angry community members, and decision-

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 Kakar / GENDER AND PERCEPTIONS OF JOB PERFORMANCE 245

Table 1: Demographic Characteristics of the Respondents

M % n

Highest degree completed

High school 23.04 50
Associate’s degree 22.58 49
More than 2 years of college 30.41 66
Bachelor’s degree 23.96 52
Gender
Male 68.20 148
Female 31.79 69
Race
White 48.84 106
Black 23.04 50
Hispanic 28.11 61
Marital status
Married 66.82 145
Not marrieda 33.17 72
Rank
Officer 64.9 141
Detective 15.66 34
Sergeant 14.74 32
Lieutenant 3.22 7
Captain 1.38 3
Age at hiring 20.7
Years with the present department 9.45
Current age 37.8

a. Not married included the categories of widowed, never married, divorced, and separated.

making skills were also included.3 Background variables collected in the

survey included characteristics such as age at the time of recruitment, pres-
ent age, race, marital status, rank, and military experience. The independent
variable specified in this study is gender. Education level and years of expe-
rience with the department are used as control variables.

Justification for Utilization

of Self-Report Surveys
The self-report survey instrument was used as the method of choice for
several reasons. First, it would be increasingly difficult to obtain actual eval-
uations for the officers. Second, self-report evaluations provided some
advantages over evaluations done by the supervisors. Internal evaluations

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246 CRIMINAL JUSTICE POLICY REVIEW / September 2002

performed by supervisors do not include data on leadership, problem solv-

ing, or administrative skills. These documents do not include data on the
awards or the reprimands received by the employee. These reports do not
measure the employees’ interpersonal skills, communication and writing
skills, conflict mediation skills, or ethics. In addition, such evaluations are
generally considered to be too lenient, biased, and to contain halo error
(Walsh & Donovan 1990).

Reliability of Self-Report Surveys

Self-report surveys have been found to be quite reliable tools of research
for gathering information that otherwise may not be available (Siegel,
1995). A number of studies that have examined the validity and reliability of
self-report surveys report that there is a remarkable uniformity between self-
reported answers and official records (Blackmore, 1974; Gibson, Morrison, &
West, 1970; Voss, 1963). Clark and Tiff (1966) used a polygraph to verify
the responses given on a self-report survey. They reported that the “lie
detector” results validated survey data. Hindelang, Hirschi, and Weis
(1981) reviewed the literature concerning the validity and reliability of
self-reports and concluded that self-reports are more accurate than most
criminologists believe and that self-reports and official statistics are quite
comparable. In addition, research indicates that self-report performance
evaluations have also been found to be quite functional and useful as assess-
ment tools in the absence of or in combination with official performance
evaluations. For example, when a manager or consultant needs an overview
of an existing work unit or organization, self-report performance evalua-
tions can be quite useful (Houston, 1995). Such evaluations can also be used
as effective tools to help improve employees’job performance (Campbell &
Lee, 1988, cited by Krimmel, 1996; Kakar, 1998). The literature also pro-
vides evidence that self-reported performance instruments offer a “valid
snapshot” of the organization’s behavior. Krimmel (1996) remarked that
“where self-reported performance appraisals (when used alone) are not nec-
essarily the best method of evaluating police officer performance, they rep-
resent a valid performance picture if used as an evaluation tool for organiza-
tional purposes” (p. 91).

Estimation Procedure and Data Analysis

First, means for men and women were compared to detect significant dif-
ferences in their self-reported performance on various performance

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 Kakar / GENDER AND PERCEPTIONS OF JOB PERFORMANCE 247

categories. The means and standard deviations for each performance indi-
cator were calculated, and t tests were used to distinguish significant differ-
ences between the two groups.
Second, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to estimate differ-
ences in various performance categories by gender after controlling for the
level of education and years of experience (Fisher, 1958). “ANCOVA is
often used in non-experimental research when it is desired to compare the
performance of two or more groups on a given variable while controlling for
one or more relevant variables” (Pedhazur, 1982, p. 496).

RESULTS
The comparison of means for the two groups indicates that men and
women have very similar means on 75% (30) of the 40 job performance cat-
egories on which they evaluated themselves. For example, on ability to
accept and adapt to change, the mean for men was 3.30, and for women it
was 3.56. In the area of leadership skills, the mean for men was 3.41, and for
women it was 3.43; the mean for men on decision making in the absence of
clear guidelines was 3.16, and for women it was 3.21. Men’s mean score on
the ability to perform tasks in other areas than those trained in was 2.73, and
for women it was 2.80. Their mean scores did not differ significantly on
their knowledge of departmental rules and knowledge of state and federal
laws, and both groups had virtually identical mean scores on their ability to
deal with extra work, criticism, and work without supervision. The catego-
ries in which the groups did differ significantly were honesty and ethics,
professional integrity, problem-solving skills, job satisfaction, satisfaction
with the department, ability to deal with stressful situations, ability to police
oneself, ability to accept advice and suggestions from juniors, and conflict
resolution and mediation. For example, women’s mean score (3.67) dif-
fered significantly from that of men (2.01) on willingness to take advice
from juniors, indicating that women are more willing to learn and take
advice from their colleagues including juniors. Women’s mean score on
problem-solving skills was 3.75 as compared to men’s mean score of 3.01.
Langworthy and Travis (1994) have reported that female officers are more
willing and more able to negotiate disputes and less likely to resort to force.
Women also scored higher on their ability to deal with stress (3.98 vs. 3.36).
Another significant difference is discerned in female officers’ability to deal
with wrong accusation. Women’s mean score was 3.78 as compared to male
officers’ mean score of 2.10. Female officers also scored higher on their
ability for conflict resolution (3.89 vs. 3.00). Similar findings were reported

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248 CRIMINAL JUSTICE POLICY REVIEW / September 2002

by Grennan (1987) and Ho (1993). These are important and interesting find-
ings validating previous findings that women perhaps have more positive
attributes required for police work. These results are presented in Table 2.
When ANCOVA was performed to detect if any of the significant differ-
ences between men and women were attributable to different levels of edu-
cation and years of experience, these differences were shown to persist in
the face of controls for these control variables. No significant differences
were found in 30 of the 40 performance categories. However, the differ-
ences that were found significant in the earlier analysis persisted during
ANCOVA as well. These results are presented in Table 3.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

Although this study has attempted to compare male and female officers’
perceptions of their performance controlling for the level of education and
years of work experience, it has its own limitations. First, it should be noted
that this study is based on the officers’perceptions and the data are collected
through self-reports. Although some research vouches for the reliability of
self-report data, other research challenges this reliability. Thus, the results
should be interpreted with caution. Second, it is possible that there may be a
response bias. Because participation in the study was voluntary, officers
who chose to participate may be different from the officers who chose not to
participate. To compare participants with nonparticipants is outside the
scope of this study. It should also be noted that the sample is based on a
southern metropolitan county. It is possible that officers from rural counties
and/or northern counties have different perceptions of their performance.
Caution should be used when drawing conclusions. In addition, this study
examines the performance of police officers, not police recruits. (A study of
police recruits who have not yet been socialized into police culture may
present different results.) Police officers’ responses may have been affected
by their professional culture. Thus, caution should be taken when generaliz-
ing these results.
It should also be noted that this research examined gender differences in
self-perceptions of officers’ performance. Future research should be con-
ducted to examine whether officers’perceptions of their performance repre-
sent an accurate assessment of their actual performance. Such an inquiry
will provide more conclusive answers to whether or not officers’ perfor-
mance actually varies by gender.

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 Kakar / GENDER AND PERCEPTIONS OF JOB PERFORMANCE 249

Table 2: Means and Standard Deviations for Men and Women

Men (n = 148) Women (n = 69)

Variable M SD M SD

Ability to take right action 3.38 1.10 3.56 1.21

Manage extra work 3.14 0.93 3.00 1.10
Deal with angry community members 3.05 0.98 3.04 0.96
Accept suggestions 1.49 0.66 1.43 0.77
Accept change 3.30 0.76 3.56 0.65
Colleagues’ illegal activity 3.02 1.14 3.93 1.03*
Colleagues’ unethical activity 3.40 1.15 3.99 1.24*
Decision making 3.16 1.07 3.21 1.22
Work on deadlines 2.35 0.628 2.19 0.76
Challenging situations 3.45 0.723 3.30 0.743
Job satisfaction 3.56 1.445 2.34 0.867*
Knowledge of federal laws 2.75 0.656 2.66 0.344
Satisfaction with the department 2.96 0.721 1.74 0.898*
Accept responsibility for personal
mistakes 2.49 1.173 2.38 0.667
Leadership 3.41 0.680 3.43 0.522
Problem solving 3.01 0.983 3.75 0.673*
Collegiality 3.93 0.683 3.27 0.781
Knowledge of state laws 2.75 0.656 2.86 0.344
Deal with stress 3.36 0.630 3.98 0.692*
Police oneself 3.75 0.730 4.66 0.768*
Take advice from juniors 2.01 0.897 3.67 1.014*
Deal with wrong accusations 2.10 1.450 3.78 0.459*
Arrest-report writing 4.01 0.988 4.2 0.745
Ability to perform tasks 2.73 0.756 2.80 0.659
Conflict resolution 3.00 0.890 3.89 0.987*
Witness in court 3.12 0.798 3.33 0.896
Knowledge of departmental rules 3.45 0.672 3.40 0.789
Work as a team 3.75 0.896 3.78 1.101
Awards 3.23 0.987 3.00 1.023
Reprimands 2.98 1.023 2.74 1.010
Community service 2.00 0.769 2.01 0.890
Organizational skills 3.16 0.897 3.20 0.987
Planning strategies 3.45 1.043 3.40 1.120
Management skills 4.01 0.898 3.98 0.988
Human relations 3.75 1.020 3.87 0.999

*Significant at the .05 level.

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250 CRIMINAL JUSTICE POLICY REVIEW / September 2002

Table 3: Analysis of Covariance by Level of Education Controlling for Years of

Experience

Performance Indicator F

Report colleagues’ illegal activity 94.59*

Report colleagues’ unethical activity 144.66*
Decision making in the absence of clear guidelines 63.35*
Work with deadlines 124.85*
Challenging situations 63.80*
Perform in other than assigned area 81.17*
Knowledge of federal laws 126.20*
Accept responsibility for personal mistakes including illegal activity 85.91*
Leadership 113.36*
Problem solving 59.71*
Deal with stressful situations 18.27*
Knowledge of federal laws 99.25*
Take advice from juniors 34.28*
Deal with wrong accusations 66.79*

*Significant at the .05 level.

DISCUSSION
This analysis, however limited it may be, does suggest that, in terms of
gender, similarities exist in officers’ perceptions of their job performance.
There are no statistically significant differences between male and female
officers’ perceptions of job performance skills in administrative and super-
visory tasks. This is found to be true even when the officers’years of experi-
ence with the department and the level of education are controlled.
Significant differences were found in categories of job satisfaction and
satisfaction with the department, with women being much lower than men.
This may be due to the fact that female officers have yet to gain acceptance
from their male counterparts. As discussed earlier, women were initially
excluded from law enforcement and then assigned a limited role, which was
merely an extension of their traditional female sex role, and were reluc-
tantly accepted in the mainstream law enforcement in the 1970s. Other sig-
nificant differences were found in officers’ perceptions of their honesty and
professional ethics, dealing with wrongful accusations, conflict resolution,
problem-solving skills, and accepting advice from juniors and giving them
credit. These differences are also similar to the differences found by other
researchers. For example, the results of research by Langworthy and Travis
(1994) showed that female officers tend to have distinct abilities to

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 Kakar / GENDER AND PERCEPTIONS OF JOB PERFORMANCE 251

negotiate hostile situations and disputes. These differences actually

enhance officers’performance and make them more effective in administra-
tive and supervisory tasks. The results from this study provide an argument
that the differences found in men and women’s job performance categories
tend to complement female officers’abilities and should be taken advantage
of rather than condemned or ignored. Indeed, some traits that make female
officers different from male officers are the desirable traits of contemporary
law enforcement officers, and these merit special attention and utilization.
It is evident that structural changes in U.S. laws and the legal system have
helped to create an increase in the number of women in this traditionally
male-dominated field of law enforcement; however, attitudinal changes are
needed to bring about social change and equity in promoting women in
supervisory and administrative positions. Coupled with the results of this
and earlier research, there are demographic trends that warrant serious
timely consideration of women as prospective leaders in law enforcement.
Molinaro (1997) suggested that changing workforce demographics may
actually speed the attitudinal changes that appear to be necessary in Ameri-
can law enforcement. She has noted that during the next 10 years, only one
person out of four who enters the workforce will be a White male. The other
three will be women or minorities. Recognizing this, police executives can
plan inclusive recruiting strategies now that will ensure that they get the
most qualified individuals for their departments. Molinaro projected that in
the next 10 years, two out of every three new employees will be women.
Consequently, police agencies should plan and carry out recruiting strate-
gies that will attract the best women to their departments (Molinaro, 1997,
pp. 63-64).
This research adds to the existing research by extending the hypothesis
that male and female officers have no significant differences in their percep-
tions of their job performance even when officers’ level of education and
years of experience are controlled. The findings reported here support
recruitment and promotion strategies that will take greater advantage of
women’s job skills and administrative abilities. In addition, this research
also supports the belief that along with structural changes, attitudinal
changes are critical before real change toward gender equity in policing can
occur. Women are hired and placed in responsible positions in law enforce-
ment because laws dictate access, there is a need for qualified personnel,
and workforce demographics push for inclusion of women in law enforce-
ment. However, for women to be effective and police departments to benefit
from their personnel, it is important that women be accepted as administra-
tors and leaders and given the respect that they deserve. In addition, the

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252 CRIMINAL JUSTICE POLICY REVIEW / September 2002

underrepresentation of women—particularly in top command positions—

profoundly limits the quality of policing. Intensified effort is required to
recruit and retain a diverse population of law enforcement officers to better
represent and serve American communities.
Overall, women have made only small gains in law enforcement during
the past 28 years, and they continue to increase in numbers at an alarmingly
slow rate. Until law enforcement agencies enact policies and practices
designed to recruit, retain, and promote women, gender balance in policing
will remain a distant reality (National Center for Women & Policing, 2001).

APPENDIX
PERFORMANCE INDICATOR

Ability to take right action without help from the supervisor

Manage extra work
Deal with angry community members
Accept suggestions
Willingness to accept change
Report colleagues’ illegal activity
Report colleagues’ unethical activity
Decision making in the absence of clear guidelines
Work with deadlines
Deal with challenging situations
Perform in other than assigned area
Knowledge of federal laws
Accept responsibility for personal mistakes
Leadership skills
Problem solving
Deal with stressful situations
Knowledge of state laws
Take advice from juniors
Deal with wrong accusations
Arrest-report writing
Awards
Community projects
Reprimands
Conflict resolution
Job satisfaction
Attitudes toward the department
Collegiality

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 Kakar / GENDER AND PERCEPTIONS OF JOB PERFORMANCE 253

Use contacts for personal benefit

Use contacts for departmental benefit
Witness in court
Police oneself
Accept responsibility for one’s actions
Knowledge of departmental rules
Communication
Planning strategies
Implementing strategies/plans
Management skills
Team spirit
Human relations
Organizational skills

NOTES
1. The researcher had a research grant to study one police department, which consisted of
110 patrol officers, 18 sergeants, 4 lieutenants, and 2 public aides. All officers at this depart-
ment completed the surveys. To create a more mixed sample, surveys were also delivered to
four nearby police departments. Eighty-three out of 266 officers from the other departments
returned completed surveys.
2. A test instrument consisting of 40 performance indicators was created using informa-
tion from the Metropolitan County Employees Performance Evaluation form (Alpert &
Moore, 1993; Krimmel, 1996).
3. A complete list of variables appears in the appendix.

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Suman Kakar, Ph.D., is an associate professor at Florida International University,

College of Health and Urban Affairs. She specializes in the areas of juvenile delin-
quency, child abuse, family dynamics, minorities, and violence prevention and con-
ducts research in these areas. She has published two books: Child Abuse and Delin-
quency (1996) and Criminal Justice Approaches to Domestic Violence (1998). Her
recent publications include articles in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of
Criminology, the Journal of Crime and Justice, Studies on Crime and Crime Preven-
tion, the Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, the Journal of Gang Research,
and Journal of Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies. She has also
served as a guest editor for a special issue of the Journal of Contemporary Criminal
Justice.

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