Women and Men Police Officers Status, Gender, and Personality

Subjects:

• Psychology » Environmental Psychology
• Sociology » Sex & Gender Studies
• Crime & Justice » Crime & Security

Reviews:

• Gerber began this research with a desire to better understand the diffuculties faced by women police officers in being accepted as officers who are equally as competent as their male counterparts. Her findings need not be limited to women in uniform. Indeed, her research is applicable to women in all domains of woek, especially those women who are working in male-typed jobs. What began as an investigation with women and men officers and their supervisors in New York City's police department, eventually led to information that provides with a clearer understanding of how status-related expectations guide interactions, affect personality attributions at work, and ultimately perpetuate stereotypes about women and men.
  —Psychology of Women Quarterly December 2002
• [a]pplicable to women in all domains of work, especially those women who are working in male-typed jobs....[p]rovides us with a clearer understanding of how status-related expectations guide interactions, affect personality attributions at work, and ultimately perpetuate stereotypes about women and men.
  —Psychology of Women Quarterly 2002
• This book is highly recommended as a text that is useful to both scholars and graduate students in a variety of disciplines interested in gender issues. Practitioners such as police supervisors, police officers, police officers in training, security professionals and staff, police counselors and risk management officers would benifit from reading it. Gerber's book is also highly recommended for affirmative action officers who are in charge of recruiting and retaining female officers as well as affirmative action officers in other fields....[h]er skillful use of language and rich description would enable a multilayered level of understanding of her work for undergraduate and graduate students and fully engage professionals and practitioners in a variety of fields.
  —Sex Roles August 2003

• Endorsement From Joseph Berger
  Professor of Sociology, Emeritus
  Stanford University: This is a highly original and creative piece of work. It has theoretical implications with respect to different scholarly disciplines and it has very practical implications with respect to the composition and use of police terms.
• Endorsement From Nancy C. Jurik
  Professor in the School of Justice Studies
  Arizona State University: I think the book is fascinating and will be a real contribution to the literature on policing and workers in general. I like to see scholars question the nonlithic image of police officers.
• Endorsement From Margot Nadien
  Associate Professor of Psychology
  Department of Psychology
  Fordham University: Gwendolyn Gerber's ground-breaking book is a significant contribution to the understanding of gender stereotyping. Her research with police officers illuminates the way status and gender shape personality. Most important, she develops a theoretical model in the book that integrates the study of gender-stereotyped personality traits into the broader study of social interaction.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: Women and Men in Policing
• The Status Model of Gender Stereotyping
• Status Characteristics Theory and the Gender-Stereotyped Personality Traits
• Description of the Study: The Sample of Police Partners and Measures
• Status and Personality: The Dominating, Instrumental, and Expressive Traits
• Coping with Low Status: The Verbal-Aggressive and Submissive Traits
• Police Officers Who Violate Gender Norms: The Bipolar Traits
• Self-Esteem: The Impact of Status and Personality Traits
• The Patterning of Traits within Individual Personality
• Status, Gender, and Personality: Towards an Integrated Theory
• Implications for Policing
• Appendix
• Notes
• References
• Index