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Women are chronically underrepresented in all areas of policing within the USA (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2019; Prenzler and Sinclair, 2013). Comparatively, the USA lags behind other western countries on these numbers (Prenzler and Sinclair, 2013). This lack of representation grows increasingly worse moving up the ranks (Shjarback and Todak, 2019) and in certain persistently male dominated spaces such as elite specialty units (Todak et al., 2022b). Moreover, women officers face numerous challenges in their careers, including feelings of isolation, visibility, harassment and discrimination (Archbold and Schulz, 2008; Belknap and Shelley, 1993; Gustafson, 2008; Stichman et al., 2010; Stroshine and Brandl, 2011). The previous literature has identified some possible reasons for these issues (i.e. that the profession is unattractive to women; gendered organizational culture and policies); however, the question of why representation is so low for women officers across all spaces in law enforcement is still not well understood (Cordner and Cordner, 2011; Diaz and Nuno, 2021; Franklin, 2005; Kringen, 2014).
One possible explanation is that women lack effective role models and networking opportunities, making it difficult for them to advance in their careers and negatively impacting the retention of women officers overall (Belknap and Shelley, 1993; Gustafson, 2008; Kanter, 1977a). This idea is supported by theories like tokenism, suggesting that women working in male-dominated fields tend to be isolated from the dominant group and pigeon holed into “women friendly” roles (e.g. sexual assault investigators and child abuse liaisons) that limit their promotability and reinforce notions that women are not “real” police officers (Morabito and Shelley, 2018). Likewise, policing is also considered a “gendered organization” (Heidensohn, 1992) in which structures and policies reproduce the status quo by neutralizing the effects of diversity, reinforcing inequalities and fostering an inhospitable environment for women (see Dodge et al., 2011; Rabe-Hemp, 2008a, p. 2008; Rief and Clinkinbeard, 2020; Todak et al., 2022a). For these reasons, many agencies are experimenting with mentorship programs designed to connect junior women officers with role models and networking opportunities in hopes to improve the representation of policewomen in law enforcement (e.g. through increased retention) and offset the negative effects of gendered policies, culture and tokenism that have historically limited their success.
Given the noted benefits of women police officers (Porter...