Women's Role In Criminal Justice Professions

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Writing assignment 2.9
Women for years have had to fight for respect and rights within the workplace, especially in criminal justice professions such as corrections and policing. One contributing factor in policing and corrections is they are male-dominated professions. Males’ conservative and old- fashioned views contribute to the way women are portrayed and treated in the working world. Media and the way women were and are being portrayed plays a huge role in society’s view of women’s worth and capabilities. Due to societies influences and having male dominated ideology, women must overcome barriers such as traditional roles for women, earing respect, and proving their worth in male dominated professions.
History
Males obtain old-fashioned …show more content…

Women are constantly shown and told from an early age that they need to spend copious amounts of time, money and energy on looking a certain way (killing us softly). These messages are delivered through, social media, TV shows, TV commercials/ advertisements, magazine ads and billboards. These types of advertisements severely impact a woman’s confidence and self-esteem because the expectations are simply unreachable, leaving women feeling vulnerable, incompetent, ashamed of who they are and guilty (killing us softly). The media and advertisement companies have turned women’s bodies into things to objectify for product consumption and profits, essentially dehumanizing women. Advertisement companies know that sex sells, and by trivializing sex and women’s bodies it is having a major impact on the type of violence that is happening against women (killing us softly). By dehumanizing women and their bodies, it allows for justification by men to commit domestic violence, violence and sexual assault (killing us softly). Even though it is more common for women to be influenced by the media on how to act or look, it also influences men. For example, violent video games and boxing promote power and masculinity. Because boys start to play video games that include, guns, killing and violence from an early age, they are exposed to violence early on in life. As they grow older they still do not escape from …show more content…

Female police and correctional officers not only have the stress of everyday work duties, but also, they have the added stress of “lack of peer support, hostility, harassment by male officers, the need to prove themselves, and having the extra responsibility of their home life as the primary caretakers” (2.4 module). The lack of peer support referring to male peers could be due to their predisposed belief that women are incapable of completing the job successfully due to their “emotional and sentimental nature” (2.4 module). A belief that has been disproved many of times. Joan Ross experienced firsthand the lack of support by her male peers, on her first day on the job as the first female correctional officer in Lethbridge she was left standing outside because her fellow colleagues refused to let her into the building (2.6 module). The reasoning in why this happened could be because of the media and males’ perception of females in the workplace as the author of “Killing Us Softly” suggested or it could be because the males’ sense of masculinity could be tampered with making them feel vulnerable as Jackson Katz suggested. These views and responses from correctional clients and coworkers may have very little relation to women’s competence or job performance but in relation to her physical characteristics (module 2.8). Females in the past and currently face an excessive

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