International Journal of Aquatic Science

ISSN: 2008-8019
Vol 12, Issue 02, 2021

Unfolding Gender Equity,Gender Equality

And Job Satisfaction Concerning Women
Police Officials
PriyaAntony P1, Dr. J.O. JerydaGnanajaneEljo2,
1
ResearchScholar,Dept. of Social Work,Bharathidasan University,
2
Associate Professor,Dept. of Social Work, Bharathidasan University,

Email :[email protected],[email protected]

ABSTRACT : The term gender equity and gender equality are sometimes used inter
changeably but law they denote two separate path to evolving women. Gender equity is
achieved when women and men, girls and boys have equal rights, life prospects and
opportunities and the power to shape their own lives and contribute to society. Gender
equality is a wider concept.Gender equality is the state or condition that affords women and
men equal enjoyment of human rights, socially valued goods, opportunities, and resources.
Job satisfaction is an important concept in modern economic scenario. Job satisfaction is
an indication of the psychological well being of the employees. This paper explores the
issues of gender discriminations faced by women police at work place and indicates the
difference between gender equality and gender equity. This paper describes a literature
based analysis of the relationship between gender inequality and job satisfaction among
women police also.

Key Words: gender equity, gender equality, gender discrimination, job satisfaction, women
police

1. INTRODUCTION

Gender discrimination at workplaces are a common and pervasive phenomenon across the
globe. By 2030, India’s working-age population will surpass 1 billion. This gives us an
excellent opportunity to tap the vast possible of the women workforce. The UNGC (United
Nations Global Compact) India Study 2020 states that raising women’s participation in the
labor force to the same level as men can enhancement India’s GDP by 27%. This is further
supported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Yet the participation of women in
India’s workforce continues to be amongst the lowest in the world. According to the Monster
Salary Index survey 2019, women in India earn 19% less than men and only 28% of women
are active in the workforce.
Women play active role in the economic development of the country. Earlier their role was
only limited to house hold activities. But now, many women are opting jobs in order to build
a good career and give financial support to their families. Police are like real heroes, but most
of the people are unaware of the amount of stress that police face every day. When compared
to other occupation, police job is considered as highly stressful and stress is as an integral
part of the life of a professional police officer. Police work involves protection of life,
safeguarding property through vital patrol techniques, enforcement of laws in the place for
714
International Journal of Aquatic Science
ISSN: 2008-8019
Vol 12, Issue 02, 2021

which the police station is responsible. They are the first line of protection betweenthe
criminals and the society. Women in policing have had an important political, social,
economic and psychological impact.
While cultural and social norms prevent women from understanding their full economic
potential, safety concerns control their physical and economic mobility. Gender equity truly
is an enormous problem when it comes to women’s participation in any country’s workforce.
Achieving gender equality at workplace requires ainclusive understanding of the ways in
which women experience discrimination and are denied equality. The Global Gender Gap
report released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2017, states that India finished 139
out of 144 countries on economic participation and opportunity and 112 on the education
attainment metric. Overall, India ranked 108 out of 144 countries, clearly indicating the
presence of a gender gap.
Gender inequality at the workplace is highly unfavorable for the overall economy. As per a
World Bank study, India’s female labor force participation has reduced to 20.5% in 2019
from 30.3% in 1990. A study by the McKinsey Global Institute indicates that the
participation of women in the workforce could add US$700 billion to India’s GDP by 2025.
The pandemic has further impacted prospects for India’s female workforce, restraining a
country which is striving to become a $5 trillion economy by 2025.
Gender plays a major role in stress as female police personnel face more stress related
problems than male police personnel. When women are overwhelmed by occupational stress
they suffer from increased chronic stress, depression, heart diseases, stomach disorders,
alcohol and drug usage and even suicide attempts. During festival timings, police often work
for more than 36 hours at a stretch. This may take a heavy charge on their health
Job satisfaction refers to a person’s feeling of satisfaction on the job, which acts as a
motivation to work. It is not the self-satisfaction, happiness or self-contentment but the
satisfaction on the job.Job satisfaction relates to the total relationship between an individual
and the employer for which he is paid. Satisfaction means the simple feeling of attainment of
any goal or objective. Job dissatisfaction brings an absence of motivation at work.Research
workers differently describe the factors contributing to job satisfaction and job
dissatisfaction. Hoppock describes job satisfaction as, “any combination of psychological,
physiological and environmental circumstances that cause and person truthfully to say I am
satisfied with my job.”This paper explores the issues of gender discriminations faced by
women police at work place and indicates the difference between gender equality and gender
equity. This paper describes a literature based analysis of the relationship between gender
inequality and job satisfaction among women police also.

Objectives
 To draw out conceptual difference between gender equity and gender equality
 To explore gender discrimination faced byWomen police at work place
 To analyse the relationship between gender inequality and job satisfaction among
women police

Statement of the Problem

The representation of women in police force remains dismal. Statistics suggest that women
composition in police force globally is less than 10%. While developed countries and sub
Saharan countries show India women constitute less than 3 % of women comprise half of
world population marginally better representation with 12-13% police force. From equity
point of view this gender discrimination at work place is disheartening as proportion being
715
International Journal of Aquatic Science
ISSN: 2008-8019
Vol 12, Issue 02, 2021

women, yet in developing countries like and take on two thirds of work burden and yet end
up being owners of 10% of world property.
It has been observed that women have increased entry into masculine police force but their
struggle for equity continues. They are being hired in inconsequential positions, are given
uninteresting assignment, suffer from inadequate job training and face resistance from male
colleagues. One of the most important barriers that the women face in the police force is the
fixed ideas and deep-rooted prejudices that their male co-workers have towards them.
Women colleagues are considered to be physically weak, docile, lack in aggression and are
considered inefficient in commanding respect among the public.

Methodology
This paper describes a literature review based analysis of the relationship between gender
inequality and job satisfaction among women police. Those secondary sources are collected
from the internet, articles and other research journals.

Concept of Gender Equality & Gender Equity

The concept gender equality is since long recognized as the preferred wording for equal
rights, life prospects, opportunities and power for women and men, girls and boys. It is used
in all key international agreements, from the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Dis-crimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1979 to the Sustainable Development Goals in
2015.

On the international arena as well as in national contexts gender equality is a concept that is
closely connected to the human rights agenda. It is also used to tag the goal in the struggle for
women’s rights lead by the women’s movement all over the world.Gender equality is a
concept with transformative meanings, covering women’s empowerment, non-discrimination
and equal rights regardless of gender. It embraces a multi-dimensional and intersectional
view on inequalities between women and men, girls and boys. It points towards change of
gender-based power relations in all sectors of society, private as well as public.
Gender equity puts the focus on fairness and justice regarding benefits and needs for women
and men, girls and boys. Equity is used for example within the education, health and
humanitarian sectors referring to the equal distribution of resources based on the needs of
different groups of people. Gender equity in this context refers to the fact that a gender
analysis of these needs is necessary, as they in many respects may be different aimed at
women and men, boys and girls.
However the concept gender equity is also used to separate gender equality from the human
rights agenda and avoid talking about women and girls’ human rights. It has been picked up
by conservative actors who emphasize the complementarity of women and men, talk about
“separate but equal” and go far in arguing for biologically given roles and obligations for
women and men in society.When used in this way the concept gender equity has opened up
for a definition that only embraces part of the gender equality agenda. Thus it leaves the
transformativeand challenging aspects of gender equality out and makes it possible to avoid
the necessary contestation of power relations and unequal social, economic, and political
structures.

716
International Journal of Aquatic Science
ISSN: 2008-8019
Vol 12, Issue 02, 2021

Review Analysis

Rajan R Patil and M Bagavandas(2020) noted in their study “Gender Discrimination as

Determinants of Stress in Police Profession” that Men oppose women’s entry into the police
force due to their anxiety over the self-declared right to manage law and order that is
perceived to be their forte. Gender experts are of the opinion that such masculine concerns
are borne out of their type casted idea that women are to be inferior to men. Entry of women
into police have effect on the felinity of woman that make her aggressive, authoritarian, and
less emotional. It also affects masculinity of men as they feel lowered in status to be
commanded over by women superior. Female gender has inherent superiority over men when
it comes to interpersonal communication skills and ability to empathize with others. To
harness this attribute there are efforts to set up all women institutions like jails, police
stations. Gender sensitive police reforms will benefit society at large as it would be help in
developing police institution that are responsive to people’s needs.

Greeshma K.S (2019) piloted a descriptive study on perception of police personnel towards
job satisfaction with special reference to first battalion, Ramavarmapuram Thrissur district.
This study noted that police officers are having high level of perception towards the
determinants of job satisfaction like nature of work, supervision, communication, promotion
opportunities etc.., that is there are highly satisfied with police job. All the determinants of
job satisfaction are significantly correlated.

Joe Abram, John George (2019) conducted a study on occupational stressors among civil
police officers of a sub division of Thrissur district. In this study eight operational stressors
were found to have a median value above four, while a median of five organizational
stressors was found to be above four “fatique” and “friends/family feels the stigma associated
with job” were the most commonly quoted operational stressors while “staff shortage” and
“bureaucratic red tape” were the most commonly quoted organizational stressors.

D.Bhuvaneswari& P. Thirumoorthi (2019) studied about Work life balance among women
police in Salem City. This study suggests that changes can be adopted in working hours and
with the shift system so that it can minimize the stress level of women police employees. So
this might bring balance between their work life. This study inferred that most of the women
police personnel’s are facing work family conflicts and in turn will lead to a psychological
distress.

ManjuAmla and Pro.MeenakshiMalhothra (2019) conducted a study on work life balance

and its impact on job satisfaction of women police personnel of Hisar and Chandigarh
Police. The results of this study revealed that age, education and work experience were
significantly different in the level of work life balance. A significant and positive relationship
was found between work life balance and job satisfaction. The findings reported that women
police personnel who were quite good at balancing their family and work proved to be were
satisfied with their jobs and vice versa.

R Jayasathya& K Swathi (2019) conducted a study on problems and challenges faced by

women police constables in Coimbatore city. The total mean rating of Problem faced in work
environment is 47.62. The highest mean score 3.68 has been found in work load with the
standard deviation of 1.092 and the lowest mean score is 2.50 has been for sexual harassment

717
International Journal of Aquatic Science
ISSN: 2008-8019
Vol 12, Issue 02, 2021

with the standard deviation of 1.309. The respondents has given highest rating to Work load
because of the pressure on work .The respondents has given lowest rating to sexual
harassment which shows the safety of women police in their work environment. The total
mean rating of Problem faced at home is 42.51. The highest mean score 3.60 has been found
in No time to participate in social and religious functions with the standard deviation of 1.095
and the lowest mean score is 2.38 has been in Suspicion by society and family members with
the standard deviation of 1.354. The respondents has given highest rating to No time to
participate in social and religious functions because of excess work load .The respondents has
given lowest rating to suspicion by society and family members which shows the respect
given to women police in society as well as in family.

Abhishek Singh, SandheepKollipara(2018) conducted a study on Depression Anxiety

Stress among the Police Personnel’s. This descriptive study was conducted at police stations
of Moradabad at Utter Pradesh. Depression anxiety stress scale 21 short form was the tool of
the study. The study subjects had normal level of depression which corresponds 65.0%, mild
level depression was 10.0%,moderate level of depression was 11.7%,severe level was 10%
and extremely severe level of depression was 3.3%. The participants with normal anxiety
level found 58.3%, mild level of anxiety was 0.83%, moderate level of anxiety was 0.83%
and severe level of anxiety was 13.3% and extremely severe level was 11.7%. The study
participants had normal stress level was 65.0%, mild level was 16.7%, moderate level was
11.7%, severe level of stress was 05.0%, where as extremely severe level of stress was
0.17%. This study noted that there is a definite need for the periodic assessment of the mental
health status of the police officers.

Dr.G.Kavitha&S.SriGayathri (2018) studied on stress among women police constables,

Coimbatore city. Questionnaire was the tool. Simple percentage analysis, Chi- Square,
ANOVA and t- test , Fried man test were used. The analysis of data revealed that the working
conditions need to be improved. Proper toilets, changing rooms and other amenities need to
be provided to the women police.

Dr. Ushadevi N &PreemaD’Sa (2018) published a research paper on work life balance – a
tool for quality service, a study with reference to women police based in Banglore city. Most
(85%) of the women police felt that the best alternative for police service is teaching
profession and very few (15%) preferred government job. For most of them, as there was no
alternative choice, they are forced to accept the police job for the sake of employment and job
security and they are not interested in the promotion with transfer to the far off place.
Majority (76%) of the respondents are totally dissatisfied with regard to their salary structure,
fringe benefits and promotions. The working conditions of women police are very poor and
they are totally dissatisfied with their Working hours. There is a provision by the State as
well as Central Government to give accommodation facility to the police. Whereas the study
says that majority of respondents are staying in rented house, for which the respondents find
it difficult in meeting their rental and commuting expenses.

Kavya C.N and Dr. Chandrashekar E (2016) conducted a qualitative study- A Sociological
study on job satisfaction and adjustment problems among female police constables in
Karnataka. This study finds that due to lack of time, lack of facilities, over time duty, high
level job stress, inadequate salary, lack of holidays, delayed promotion, lack of recognition
for good work , majority of the respondents were dissatisfied with their job. This study also

718
International Journal of Aquatic Science
ISSN: 2008-8019
Vol 12, Issue 02, 2021

finds that the majority of the respondents faced both family and professional adjustment
problems.

Prema Rose Nichlavose (2016) conducted a study on perception of police personnel’s

towards the determinants of job satisfaction. All the determinants of job satisfaction such as
nature of work, supervision, salary, relationship with co workers, communication are equal to
average, has been rejected 1% and 5% level of significance except in case of job stress. Thus
means score shows that except in the case of job stress the respondents have an above
average level of agreeability towards the determinants of police job satisfaction.

MaheshkumarKuppusami (2016) conducted an assessment of psychological stress among

female police personnel in Kerala. The perceived stress scale (PSS) was simultaneously
administered to 75 available PW of both constable and officers, between 21-60 years of age
from randomly selected police stations in the three district of Kerala. Result: In PW, those
who are working for more than 12 hours in a day experienced significantly (P< 0.05) more
stress (21.4 ± 3.40) than the 6 - 12 hours workers (17.98± 2.64). At the same time PW with
gender inequality has significantly (P< 0.05) experienced high stress (27.82±3.52) than the
others without any gender issue (19.5± 4.38). Conclusion: This study provides an
understanding on the perceived psychosocial stress level of female police personnel in kerala,
and Gender inequality present in their work, mainly due to their minority in the department.
Exploratory studies or other studies are needed to determine the extent of difference between
male and female police

Female Police Officers' Perceptions and Experiences with Marginalization: A

Phenomenological Study Dr. Arlether Ann Wilson Walden University(2016) noted that
female police officer participants identified messages of sexual harassment and gender
discrimination as a primary concern during their careers. Some participants also identified
racial issues and provided responses which appeared to minimize acts of sexual harassment
within this thematic perception. Additionally general acts of inequality were also recognized.

Vidhya N &Dr.SuphalaKotian( 2014) published a research paper titled job satisfaction

among women police personnels A literature review. Findings of this paper indicates that
male police have higher level of job satisfaction than on the research on their line level
counter part indicates.

Erik et al., (2006) have conducted the research on whether women are discriminatedthrough
sticky floor or glass ceiling effects in Sweden. They have found through theirresearch that
women in Sweden suffer more from sticky floor effects than glass ceilings.Their study also
showed that women with small children face a largest gender penalty incareers. Gender
penalty is larger for younger and older women and less for middle agedwomen.

SardharVallabhaiPattel Police Academy(1999) structured enormous examination on

Gender issues and the police in India, a study of women police in Andhra Pradhesh and Uttar
Pradhesh, In this study both men and female agreed that the reason why many women did not
prefer to join the police was because it left very little time for the family and both women
and men agreed that there was a lot of gender discrimination in the police.
Gender Discrimination Faced By Women Police at Work Place

719
International Journal of Aquatic Science
ISSN: 2008-8019
Vol 12, Issue 02, 2021

From the above mentioned review analysis it is understood that police women are faced with
multiple obstacles that can be broadly classified as intrinsic and extrinsic barriers. Intrinsic
factors are related to job related factors namely work place environment, confrontational
male colleague, negative appraisal by superiors. This is evidently reflected in denial of
prestigious transfers and high-profile assignments such as narcotics, gang units, foreign
assignments etc but instead are relegated to what is considered to be typically feminine units
i.e., community relationship, domestic violence, child abuse etc. Besides women are often
topics of sex jokes that make them feel highly uncomfortable in the company of male
colleagues. Extrinsic factors are the barriers that come to the fore due to double burden of
work and family. It revolves around stress relating managing family and work-related
pressures. Women are expected to be the primary care givers in majority of homes that leads
to double burden of work and home. Policewomen are stressed given their unpredictable
demands of their duty calls that invariably lead to conflicts at home.
Sexual harassment at workplace is very often downplayed and dismissed in the name of
friendly flattering between man and women among police colleagues. One of the main
reasons n itself like subordination, solidarity etc. Police personnel are confronted with two
distinct why sexual harassment go unreported in police work force is due to peculiarities of
policing i types of stress that could be categorized as static stress and dynamic stress. Static
stress mainly involve social structures and systems that are related to individual background
such as Caste, religion, ethnicity, socio-economic status, gender and age. Women police
personnel have to particularly deal with gender role and demands for gender appropriate
behavior that is often major source of static stress. Dynamic stress are attributable to work
environment and ability of police personnel in coping with work related stress. It is well
known that policing profession puts the person in the face of grave dangers. Police personnel
have to be challenging with violence and death at crime scenes, loss of life of a colleague or
to be firing line personally to save lives of civilians or some time are forced to take lives of
criminals all of which get remain embedded as haunting memories. The unpredictability and
violent work environment of policing profession prove to be major source of stress.
It is observed that lady police officers are more likely to resign from the job for family
reasons as compared to their men counterparts which is vindicated by the exit interviews.
Management of home and family, child rearing responsibilities and resultant maternity leave
etc are cited as the major reasons. Resignation rates of women police officers remain low,
and broadly comparable between men and women. However, female officers are more likely
than male officers to leave for domestic reasons.
There are two ways in which women inducted into police force may react, they either
completely get coopted by the police subculture or tend to acquire masculine attributes in
their personality e.g., tough, unemotional etc . The other extreme is that they choose not to
persue the policing career. Women who do choose to take up policing as their profession, are
always under personality conflict in deciding when and how to behave as a tough police cop
and when should she assume lady like behavior. Very often women enter male dominant
profession on male terms without realizing their inherent superior feminine strength. When
women enters police profession, she is faced with unique personality dilemma, while she is
born as female but is expected to excel like male in discharging her duties.

Relationship Between Gender Inequality & Satisfaction Among Women Police

In a study carried out in Gujarat, India, it was found that women police have higher job
satisfaction than their men colleagues (Kumar &Dhingra, 2016). Even though gender has
not emerged as a significant variable in many western studies as well as in the present study,

720
International Journal of Aquatic Science
ISSN: 2008-8019
Vol 12, Issue 02, 2021

men in uniform have been reported having higher levels of job satisfaction than women in
Tamil Nadu, India (Vidya&Kotian, 2014). This is supported by high job stress as being
negatively correlated with job satisfaction in women police constables in the same state
(Mohanraj&Natesan, 2015) and as owing to specific types of stress conditions like
‘inability to give adequate time for their family, god and/or for religious activities’
(Rathi&Barath, 2013), maintaining work-life balance (Tremblay, Genin& Loreto, 2011)
as well as ‘the prolonged duty hours during summer’ (Kanchana, Vijayalakshmi&Sudha,
2012). Wherein female officers are implicated as having less job satisfaction than their male
colleagues, there is, probably, a cultural dimension in the differences. Gender variations can
be argued as socially constructed rather than as individual’s physical characteristics since the
job of policing is construed as ‘masculine’.

2. CONCLUSION

Workplaces must be committed to expending a lens of gender justice while planning their
entire system of functioning. Through the review analysis it is clearly understood that there
are lots of gender discrimination trends still exist in Police Department.Gender discrimination
leads to many other psychological and social issues. Elimination of Gender Discrimination is
vital for the job satisfaction and motivation,commitment and enthusiasm.More studies
measuring their job indices like police stress, satisfaction and systems are periodically
required.

3. REFERENCES

[1] Erik, Bihagen., Marita Ohls. (2006). The glass ceiling-where is it? Women’s and
men’scareer prospects in the private vs. the public sector in Sweden 1979-2000
[2] Kavya CN, Dr. Chandrashekar E, (2016) A sociological study on job satisfaction and
adjustment problems among female police constables in Karnataka, International
Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development, 243-247
[3] Abhishek Singh, Sandeep Kollipara, AaliyaParveen, Avinash Singh,
AnkitaChauhan,Anjali,Ankit Kumar, Ashu Rajput, Bhim Singh, Anjali Ruhela,
(2018), Depression Anxiety Stress among the police personnel’s, International Journal
of Advanced Science and Research, 107-109
[4] D.Bhuvaneswari& P. Thirumoorthi (2019), Work Life Balance among Women Police
in Salem City, Tamil Nadu, International Journal of Recent Technology and
Engineering (IJRTE), 794-797
[5] Vidhya N &Dr.SuphalaKotian( 2014) Job Satisfaction Among Women Police
Personals – A Literature Review, INDIAN JOURNAL OF APPLIED
RESEARCH,218-220
[6] L. Lokesh1, Swati Patra& S. VenkatesanResearch Scholar, Department of
Psychology, DOS in Psychology,
[7] University of Mysore,Job Satisfaction among Police Personnel: A Socio-
Demographic Study,Global Journal of interdisciplinary Social Sciences, 56-62
[8] Rajan R Patil* and M Bagavandas(2020)Gender Discrimination as Determinants
[9] of Stress in Police Profession, Journal of Forensic Sciences and Criminal
Investigation, 1-6

721