Abstract

The issue of gender inequality in the workplace continues to be very topical, traversing academic and public social discussions. This study contributes to these discourses by focusing on gender inequality through the lived experiences of women in leadership positions in police forces in England and Wales. It explores what the lived experiences of these senior police officers reveal about the challenges and opportunities that women aspiring for leadership positions face as they progress through the police force, a traditionally masculine institution. A narrative analysis of the stories of these women highlighted the persistent barriers they faced, ranging from subtle biases to overt discrimination, as they climbed the ranks, especially the challenge of navigating a work-life balance in a particularly demanding 24/7 job. This enabled the study to examine the various ways in which policewomen in leadership roles perceive and respond to sexism within the police force. The resultant themes showed that most of the barriers faced by policewomen in the workplace are institutional, for instance, assigning women to roles requiring pastoral care. The stories showed how these women viewed pastoral roles as something that happened to them rather than something they wanted. Other themes showed that sometimes women downplayed the effects of sexism or even inadvertently promoted sexism. The queen bee phenomenon (QBP) is one known example of this; however, unlike other studies that have presented QBP as a binary occurrence, this study found that QBP can take the form of a spectrum, with each woman in this study occupying a different position on that spectrum. The stories and themes showed the different ways the policewomen navigated the obstacles they faced, which might be helpful to younger policewomen building a career in the force and informing future reforms in the police. The need for further reforms is evident, based on the direct claims of the policewomen and evidence from their narratives that indicate an organisation skewed towards benefiting certain social dynamics such as family make-ups. The study detailed some of the women's reform suggestions, including practices around promotion and maternity leave.