Female Correctional Officers

egg-producing(prenominal) person Correctional Officers Jordan Beth Stevenson Introduction to Corrections October 25, 2012 Saeler Abstract This research paper consists of sketch history of how female person punitory ships officers came to be in the governance and the apostrophize cases that hindered and helped their process. It also consists of the stereo fibers and struggles the officers atomic number 18 faced with in this line of run such(prenominal) as weaknesses and al-Qaeda life association. Sexual harassment and discrimination is a problematic topic that is unavoidcap competent. Statistics w queasy also be menti unmatchabled and explained doneout the paper.Being a female punitory officer is extremely problematical and is non encouraged, however it is possible. feminine Correctional Officers Women bind been involved in the criminal rightness system since the beginning. Females sire been trying to acidulate font by side with men in e precise grammatical constr uction of finding and controlling rightness in society. However, women have non been able to work in unless of the aras of the system. The correctional officers of prisons are extremely necessary aspects since the Walnut Street chuck out in the criminal justice system, yet only men were able to fill that position until the 1970s.Going through the history of how women came to be able to work as correctional officers result give an insight of the challenges and struggles they went through and motionless stir today due to the stigma of universe a cleaning ladyhood. The stereotypes that watch out female officers cause hiring and prevailing issues amongst the work ethic and daily activities of the officers. Overcoming these problems had been a difficult task and still is being tackled in institutions today. Discriminations are also a problem, especially from the male coworkers.Women face possibility of internal harassment over they go. Working in a male offender prep aredness increases those possibilities. dealings with the differences between males and females as well as competing for the same position as a man causes tautness in the workplace and in society. entirely of these aspects are large parts of the career for female correctional officers. score Women have been in the correctional system since the early 1930s working(a) in the administrative department and as secretary- kindred positions.The idea of a muliebrity doing more than just paperwork was unheard of and it was looked down upon when a woman seek to excel in anything more. In 1977 though, the U. S. Supreme butterfly heard a case that forced them to address the issue of women in the correctional system as a working officer. The case of Dothard v. Rawlinson stated that a woman was denied a position as a correctional officer at a male institution in Alabama. It stated she was denied the position because of the conditions of the prison and the predatory nature of the male inm ates (Seiter, 2011, p. 406).Women were not seen as equals to men, especially in this department. After this case was publicized, organizations began attaining in order to change the law so women could hold the positions they wanted and deserved. The Public Service Employment Act had only hired men to work in male facilities and women to only work in female facilities. In 1977, The Public Service Commission announced that they were going to review the justification for the restriction and try to overturn it. The outfit wanted to have the opportunity for all candidates to be equal in being hired.Certain human right acts also tried to help arouse together equality by auditing some government agencies to assure there was no discrimination. The Employment Equity Act was formed to enforce compliance for the betrothal standards (Women Correctional Officers, 2012). With this act, women were able to fight back against the department for the chance to be hired as equals to men. In 1979, a case was presented to the U. S. District Court of Iowa, Gunther v. Iowa, which stated that inmate privacy was not a valid priming to not hire women for the positions of correctional officers (Seiter, 2011, p. 06). When this case was determined, it forced all facilities to fancy all candidates for the correctional officer positions. And, if they refused to still not hire females obviously because of their gender, they could face being sued and having a bad reputation. It was problematic for or so institutions at the time because there was a strong stigma against women, claiming they were not able to perform as well as men. Although women are statistically proven to not be as physically strong as men, it is not proven that they are not as mature of workers as men.This logical system was flawed and deservingly overturned. Stereotypes and Discriminations Women have stereotypes in every aspect of life. Stereotypes sometimes have a dominating affect on the hiring process and retain ing the position. Although credentials and producing good work during your hours is what should count, it does not always take prevalence. It is proven that men are physically stronger than women. That does mean that women do not know how to fight or protect themselves. Women are trained the same as men in order to become a correctional officer.According to MacDonald (2012), the fact that women go through a menstrual cycle and have PMS can shirk a role towards their weaknesses of being a woman. Many employers see this as a weakness and that it leaves a window of weakness during that time of the calendar month due to the typical symptoms of a menstrual cycle and PMS. Symptoms such as fatigue, headaches or migraines, menstrual cramps, aggressive behavior and mood swings are the mentioned ones. What is not mentioned is that only 30 to 40 percent of women have PMS (Premenstrual syndrome facts, 2001).So move this stereotype on all women is statistically wrong. Not only are aspects of e very woman seen as weaknesses, but there are a few extreme females who make a title against all separate women harder to stand by. A woman who plays the poor helpless female or uses the fact that they are good looking to their advantage has a strut effect in opinion of all women. If a male employer go for the act and then the female employee is not an efficient worker he stereotypes all women to be like that one bad employee. Women also get the stereotype of being promiscuous, especially if they are attractive.If a romance were to form at work, if a coworker hears of how you act with a boyfriend, or if she is single and flirts with one male coworker, it could get manipulated into that woman being a slut. It takes a long time and a lot of hard work to annihilate that stigma. All of these features are signs of weakness to the men they work with (MacDonald, 2012). Women can be and are as professional as men can be. In fact, it is more possible for a man to be promiscuous because t he internal secretion in which cause inner arousal is testosterone. Men naturally incur 4 to 7 milligrams of testosterone a day.Women produce only a 10th of that daily (Kryger, 2011). So, the overall biological sex drive is much higher(prenominal) in male then females. On the other hand, there are the unattractive or just want to do their job and not be social, they are labeled to be a lesbian just about of the time. Female correctional officers also struggle with having balancing a home life while working the long and sometime odd hours of a correctional officer. Women are reprimanded for not being more involved with their children or families lives because of the mentality the older generation still has of the women should be a sojourn at home mother (MacDonald, 2012).Sexual Harassment Female Correctional Officers are faced on a daily basis with the possibility of sexual harassment. When working in a male facility, women are in very close quarters with sexually deprived offe nders, including sexual offenders. The sexual tension among the men is going to be high but when a woman is mixed into the tension, the situation could comfortably escalate. There are three of import models of sexual harassment that have been found in male prisons against female officers. The first model is the natural-biological model.It is best explained as harassment that is not painful but rather brought out simply by natural sexual attraction. Just by placing female correctional officers in the facility increases this type of harassment. The next model is the sociocultural model and is power driven. Men typically feel as they are better and stronger than women both mentally and physically. So, the differences between genders in any workplace could stimulate out this type of harassment. The know type is the organizational model. This model is best explained by the hierarchical relations.By having a woman in power, such as a correctional officer, the male in a less powerful position want to be in power so they try to use sex to bring the female down to their level or lower. It is a manipulative assay (Savicki, Cooley and Gjesvold, 2003). All three of these types of sexual harassment are unacceptable and sort of of offering more readily available programs to help sexual offenders, the resolvent is to take the women out of the correctional facilities. The question then lies what happens to the women on the streets or in the homes of the offenders once they are released from prison?The inmates can find some(prenominal) ways to harass the female officers from simply calling them names like sexy, among other names on much worse levels, to really masturbating and ejaculating on to the officers as they walk by. Some inmates will act ill or as if they are in trouble to lure the officers into or close to the cell for a chance to grab at the officer in a sexual manner (Monthly law journal, 2010). Even though the name calling seems minor and almost unimporta nt compared to physically being harassed in some way, both actions take a bell on the mentality of the officer.The mentality strength of both men and women are about equal. This says that if a man in a female facility were to undergo similar harassment, they too would feel the mental stress and footing being done. Yet, men are still in female prisons and have been since the first female institution was established. Statistics Female correctional officers make up 22. 3% of all employees in the department in the United States (Ronquillo, 2008). Female correctional officers are typically single, either never married or divorced.The stress on both the woman and the spouse is higher than most careers due to the high risk of the job. It has also been shown that women are more likely to have attained a higher education than males (Savicki, Cooley and Gjesvold, 2003). With more education, it opposes a larger threat on the males working along their sides because they could more easily get a better position or be promoted. A higher education also gives an advantage as to adaptation and tractableness to a variety of different careers, including moving up from a correctional officer to a warden.Females also tend to view their job differently than men. Women are likely to choose a corrections position with the arouse in human service or rehabilitation, whereas men primarily will seek the career of law enforcement or other security aspect (Savicki, Cooley and Gjesvold, 2003). The mindset of women, although different from most men, is still fitting for the position of correctional officer. Conclusion For women living in and trying to compete in a male dominated world seems impossible.Female correctional officers have many difficulties and challenges to whip by not only the inmates, but by their coworkers and administrative personnel. It was a struggle to initiate being in the field of corrections and it is still a struggle today to get a position and retain that positi on. Stereotypes, sexual harassment and the severity of the job alone are factors a female correctional officer has to conquer. To keep the position they have to fight harder than men. It is not an easy career to maintain but that makes it even more rewarding when one does succeed. References 2001). Premenstrual syndrome facts, disease nutritional support strategies. Retrieved from http//www. healingwithnutrition. com/pdisease/premenstrual syndrome/pms. html Kryger, D. (2011, February 13). Women and testosterone. Retrieved from http//www. wellnessmd. com/index. php? option=com_content&view=article&id=64&Itemid=106 MacDonald, J. (2012). Women in corrections. Retrieved from http//desertwaters. com/? page_id=733 Monthly law journal article cultured liability for sexual harassment of female employees by prisoners. (2010). Retrieved from http//www. aele. org/law/Digests/jail137. htm