Female Correctional Officers

Fe manly Correctional Officers Jordan Beth Stevenson Introduction to Corrections October 25, 2012 Saeler Abstract This look for paper consists of brief history of how egg-producing(prenominal) punitory officers came to be in the system and the court ca mathematical functions that hindered and succored their emergence. It also consists of the stereotypes and struggles the officers argon faced with in this pass of charm such as incapacitatednesses and home life association. Sexual curse and discrimination is a debatable topic that is unavoidable. Statistics leave only when also be workforcetioned and explained through expose the paper.Being a female punitory officer is extremely unwieldy and is not encouraged, yet it is possible. female person Correctional Officers Wo manpower hold back been involved in the criminal justice system since the beginning. Females piss been testing to get going look by side with men in every chance of decision and controlling justice in society. However, women have not been able to work in all of the atomic number 18as of the system. The correctional officers of prisons atomic number 18 extremely necessary aspects since the walnut tree Street jail in the criminal justice system, yet single men were able to fill that station until the 1970s.Going through the history of how women came to be able to work as correctional officers will give an perceptivity of the challenges and struggles they went through and still fight today due to the brand of world a woman. The stereotypes that follow female officers cause hiring and retaining issues amongst the work ethic and cursory activities of the officers. Overcoming these problems had been a difficult task and still is being tackled in institutions today. Discriminations be also a problem, especially from the male coworkers.Women face possibility of intimate harassment everywhere they go. Working in a male offender facility increases those possibilities. Dealing with the differences between males and females as well as competing for the aforesaid(prenominal) role as a man causes tension in the piece of work and in society. All of these aspects argon large parts of the career for female correctional officers. History Women have been in the correctional system since the betimes 1930s working in the administrative surgical incision and as secretary-like positions.The mind of a woman doing more than than just paperwork was unheard of and it was looked down upon when a woman tested to excel in anything more. In 1977 though, the U. S. Supreme romance heard a case that squeeze them to address the issue of women in the correctional system as a working officer. The case of Dot grueling v. Rawlinson tell that a woman was denied a position as a correctional officer at a male institution in Alabama. It verbalise she was denied the position because of the conditions of the prison and the predatory nature of the male inmates (Seiter, 2011, p. 406).Women were not seen as equals to men, especially in this department. After this case was publicized, organizations began forming in order to heighten the jurisprudence so women could hold the positions they wanted and deserved. The Public service function Act had yet 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 re meet the justification for the restriction and try to overturn it. The commission wanted to have the opportunity for all behinddidates to be equal in being hired.Certain human right acts also tried to help gain equality by auditing some government agencies to view in that location was no discrimination. The Employment Equity Act was formed to follow through compliance for the employment 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 reason to not hire women for the positions of correctional officers (Seiter, 2011, p. 06). When this case was determined, it forced all facilities to consider all candidates for the correctional officer positions. And, if they refused to still not hire females simply because of their gender, they could face being sued and having a disobedient reputation. It was problematic for most institutions at the time because there was a wet stigma against women, claiming they were not able to perform as well as men. Although women are statistically turn out to not be as physically strong as men, it is not proven that they are not as life-threatening of workers as men.This logic was flawed and deservingly overturned. Stereotypes and Discriminations Women have stereotypes in every aspect of life. Stereotypes quondam(prenominal)s have a dominating affect on the hiring process and retaining the position. Although credentials and producing good work during your hours is what should count, it does not always build prevalence. It is proven that men are physically stronger than women. That does mean that women do not make out 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 occurrence that women go through a menstrual cps and have premenstrual syndrome can play a role towards their weaknesses of being a woman. many an early(a)wise(prenominal) employers see this as a weakness and that it leaves a window of weakness during that time of the month due to the typical symptoms of a menstrual cycle and PMS. Symptoms such as fatigue, headaches or migraines, menstrual cramps, aggressive behavior and pettishness 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 putting this stereotype on all women is statistically wrong. non only are aspects of every woman seen as weaknesses, alone there are a few extreme females who make a human action against all other women harder to stand by. A woman who plays the poor helpless female or uses the fact that they are good looking to their emolument has a ripple effect in opinion of all women. If a male employer falls for the act and then(prenominal) the female employee is not an expeditious 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 eliminate that stigma. All of these features are signs of weakness to the men they work with (MacDonald, 2012). Women can be an d are as professional as men can be. In fact, it is more likely for a man to be promiscuous because the hormone in which cause sexual arousal is testosterone. men naturally produce 4 to 7 milligrams of testosterone a day.Women produce only a tenth of that daily (Kryger, 2011). So, the overall biological sex puzzle is a good deal higher 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 most of the time. Female correctional officers also struggle with having rapprochement 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 amiableity the older generation still has of the women should be a stay at home mother (MacDonald, 2012).Sexual Harassment Female Correctional Officers are faced on a daily base of operations with the possibility of sexual harass ment. When working in a male facility, women are in very close quarters with sexually deprived offenders, 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 easily escalate. There are three main 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 harmful 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 mightiness driven. Men typically feel as they are better and stronger than women two(prenominal) mentally and physically. So, the differences between genders in any workplace could bring out this type of harassment. The last 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 attempt (Savicki, Cooley and Gjesvold, 2003). All three of these types of sexual harassment are unacceptable and instead of offering more readily available programs to help sexual offenders, the solution 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 several ways to harass the female officers from simply occupation them names like sexy, among other names on much worse levels, to actually masturbating and ejaculating on to the officers as they walk by. Some inmates will act ill or as if they are in perplexity to lure the officers into or close to the cell for a chance to catch up with at the officer in a sexual manner (Monthly law journal, 2010). Even though the name calling seems minor and almost shadowy compared to physically being harassed in some way, both actions take a toll 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 damage 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 neer married or divorced.The stress on both the woman and the pardner 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 teaching method than males (Savicki, Cooley and Gjesvold, 2003). With more edu cation, 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 flexibility 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 interest 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 adaption for the position of correctional officer. Conclusion For women living in and trying to manage in a male dominated world seems impossible.Female correctional officers have many difficulties and challenges to overcome by not only the inmates, but by their coworkers and administrative personnel. It was a struggle to initi ate being in the sports stadium of corrections and it is still a struggle today to get a position and retain that position. 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/pms/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 Civil obligation for sexual harassment of female employees by prisoners. (2010). Retrieved from http//www. aele. org/law/Digests/jail137. htm