Is it ‘just hair’ or is it ‘everything’? Embodiment and gender repression in policing

Abstract

Police department policies often require women to engage in identificatory displays inconsistent with sex category expectations. Compliance, while potentially increasing acceptance within policing, may reflect a loss of agency in aesthetic choices that limits their ability to construct gender in both the professional and personal spheres. Some women may comply without experiencing negative consequences, while others may exhibit tacit or resistant compliance reflecting their loss of agency. Women's differential reactions in response to these policies may help explain how some women become the embodiment of mythic visions associated with the profession. Through greater acceptance related to this adaptation, these women may reinforce the hostile environment experienced by other women within policing thereby propagating the status quo. In‐depth interviews with female officers and background investigators illustrate the impact of one such policy, a restrictive haircut requirement for female recruits. The results reveal that women are split in their reactions to the policy; some women comply willingly and choose to become the embodiment of the symbolic vision of policing. Others struggle with compliance as the loss of agency impacts their embodied selves through silencing their bodies.

The Menopause Taboo at Work: Examining Women’s Embodied Experiences of Menopause in the UK Police Service

“…Fotaki and Harding (2018: 76) extend this analysis by drawing on De Beauvoir's argument that 'the male is somehow able to transcend the body while women remain immanent to a flesh that is marked as close to nature'. Thus, female employees are positioned as 'other' and a potential challenge and/or problem to the rational and efficient order of organisations (Höpfl, 2003), exacerbated by the hypermasculine police service environment (Dick, 2009;Kringen and Novich, 2018). It was common for women to hide their femininity (Höpfl, 2003) (and symptoms) in order to cope, which resulted for many in silencing of their bodies (Kringen and Novich, 2018) and any discussion of menopause.…”

“…According to Tulle (2015), it also denotes the dynamic relationship we develop with our bodies: we have bodies but we also are bodies. Embodiment thus recognises that the Cartesian dichotomy separating mind and body fails to account for lived experiences in the world (Kringen and Novich, 2018) and argues that these are inescapably inter-related (Barad, 2003). Bodies thus become central to the labour process (Lee, 2018) and have been the focus of a substantial amount of research (Yates et al, 2018).…”

“…Aspiring to be an ideal, disembodied worker demands discretion around bodily functions and leads to secrecy and concealment (Gatrell, 2013). Women must strive to minimise the visibility of their bodily demands, yet at times their bodies become obvious (Yates et al, 2018) and evidence of their reproductive capacities and/or bodily fluids is problematic (Kringen and Novich, 2018). Discourse thus positions reproduction and women's bodily functions as shameful, at least in the workplace, and they are often shrouded in stigma and secrecy (Grandey et al, 2020).…”

“…The police service has been characterised as a 'hyper-masculine' context, where aggressive and macho behaviours are routinely accepted by men and women (Yates et al, 2018). Both enact masculine norms (Britton, 1997), which can lead to women being excluded or harassed (Kringen and Novich, 2018). Indeed, a significant body of research has highlighted the obstacles to acceptance and integration that women encounter on entering this male-dominated occupation (Höpfl, 2003).…”

Special Issue: Women at Work in Criminal Justice Organizations

“…Within these modern frameworks, recent research shows how the overt practices of sexual harassment and violence have been replaced with less overt practices, such as the social exclusion of women from informal access to power structures and decision making within the organization, the gendering of the division of labor which results in the marginalization of offenses that disproportionately affect women such as those related to the processing of sexual assault and domestic violence cases (Garcia, 2003; Jordan, 2002; Miller, 1999; Padavic & Reskin, 2002; Rabe-Hemp, 2018; Shelley, Morabito, & Tobin-Gurley, 2011), and policies intended to make the workplace equal, such as light duty policies, haircut policies, and the emphasis on physical strength, all which devalue and fail to accommodate the female body (Kringen & Novich, 2017; Rabe-Hemp & Humiston-Sears, 2015; Schulze, 2010).…”