“Professions for Women
...he process of joining the police force she experienced these obstacles. She constantly had to fight against the obstacle of people believing that she was not physically strong enough to perform tasks that are known to be for men only. Even her own guy friends laughed when she mentioned becoming a police officer; they didn’t think any women could be successful at a profession that dealt with having to use physical contact with men. When physical strength plays such an important role in a profession like a police officer women have to face a phantom that tortures them with the idea of having a self-image that resembles a man. A big, bough, and masculine male figure is the visual image given by the media illustrating a police officers anatomy a figure that is nearly impossible for women to have. Another obstacle that interferes in the police force profession for women is the belief that women don’t have the judgement necessary in this profession. A police officer needs to be able to identify an honest person from a prevaricator. Society has over the years created an image of women being the soft, forgiving, easily persuaded human beings. For that reason there is a mistrust towards women’s judgment, and in most cases women don’t get to express their own opinions. Our society reinforces these messages through not only soap opera and movies but in real life events. For example, I remember when I was a fifth grader at Cleveland Elementary School; students were given the opportunity to become apart of a safety monitor patrol. The responsibilities for the person given this position was for them to be in the look out for trouble and to keep things under control that is no fights. As a fifth grader I tried to become a part of this program, but when I approached the man who was in charge he specifically told me this was not a position for girls. In other words, he said that I needed to be able to be alert and have good look out skills in order to identify who initiated the fights. In addition, I needed to be tough with students and not let them get away with things. He immediately made an assumption that I would not be able to tell who were the troublemakers in the school. These types of obstacles become an issue for women at a young age because they’re given the message that positions like these are only for men. Often even parents give these messages to their daughters. In my case, my parents didn’t allow for me to go out with out my brother or cousins supervision. My father would always say, “You are a women, you need someone to take care of you, women are naïve and believe everything they are told.” He didn’t think I was capable of knowing if someone wanted to harm me and for that reason he didn’t allow me to go out. The hardest obstacle that women have to fight in this profession is the belief that women don’t have the character needed in a police officer. Since police officers often deal with criminals of all kind there is a need to have a strong rigid character and not show any signs of intimidation or fear. Women are known to be more susceptible to become intimidated by a rapist or criminal and also show a fear towards them. Furthermore, since women’s character is pictured as one that is easily fooled there is a belief that they will not be taken serious when trying to enforce the law. My neighbor Tony who has been a police officer for twenty-five years told me he experienced this often when in duty with a policewoman. An example he shared with me was that a few months ago he was in duty with a policewoman and they were called to a scene where a violent gang fight was taking place at Sound Factory nightclub. When they arrived at t...