Law enforcement is still considered a male dominated occupation resulting in the underrepresentation of women in sworn personnel positions. While it is critical for police departments to have a more representative police force, there is a lack of research on the factors that affect the likelihood of women entering policing. Past studies suggest that men and women have similar reasons for joining policing. However, research on the factors that deter potential candidates from pursuing this career path is limited. This paper examines factors that may affect the likelihood of women pursuing a career in policing. We rely on data collected from a sample of undergraduate students enrolled in criminal justice courses (n = 421). Our results show that, relative to men, women are less likely to be interested in pursuing a career as a police officer. However, more than half of the women in our sample reported interest in pursuing a career in policing. We find that for men and women, the likelihood for pursuing a career in policing was affected by a number of personal characteristics and the current socio-political climate. While a notable limitation of our study is its limited generalizability, overall, our findings offer some promise for the potential of representative policing.

执法人员仍被认为是男性占主导地位的职业，导致妇女在宣誓人员职位中的代表性不足。尽管对警察部门而言，拥有一支更具代表性的警察部队是至关重要的，但对于影响妇女参政的可能性的因素却缺乏研究。过去的研究表明，男人和女人加入警务的原因相似。但是，关于阻止潜在候选人追求这一职业道路的因素的研究是有限的。本文探讨了可能影响女性从事警务职业的可能性的因素。我们依靠从参加刑事司法课程（n = 421）的大学生样本中收集的数据。我们的结果表明，相对于男性，女性对从事警务职业的兴趣较小。然而，在我们的样本中，超过一半的女性表示有兴趣从事警务工作。我们发现，对于男人和女人来说，从事警务职业的可能性受到许多个人特征和当前社会政治氛围的影响。虽然我们研究的一个显着局限是其可推广性有限，但总的来说，我们的发现为代表警务的潜力提供了一些希望。