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Outsider Within the Station House: The Impact of Race and Gender on Black Women Police

NCJ Number
150020
Journal
Social Problems Volume: 41 Issue: 3 Dated: (August 1994) Pages: 383-400
Author(s)
S E Martin
Date Published
1994
Length
18 pages
Annotation
Interviews with 106 black and white police officers and supervisors from five large municipal police agencies formed the basis of an analysis of the perspectives, experiences, and structural barriers that black female police officers experience in dealing with white female and black and white male coworkers.
Abstract
The police agencies were located in Washington, D.C., Birmingham, Ala., Detroit, Phoenix, and Chicago. Findings indicated that the experience of discrimination is widespread, but that police officers differ in their perceptions of it on the basis of both gender and race. Most of the females but only a minority of the males believed that they had experienced discrimination as police officers. Seventy-seven percent of the white women and 55 percent of the black women reported experiencing sex discrimination; however, 20 percent of the white women and 61 percent of the black women reported experiencing racial discrimination. Forty-eight percent of the black women reported experiencing both racial and sex discrimination. All respondents agreed that little unity exists among the women. They are divided by divergent perspectives on occupational performance and other factors. Findings indicated that the combination of race and gender leads to unique problems and perspectives for black female police officers. Tables, footnotes, and 39 references

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