The Logic of Sexism Among Police

This research assumes an interpretive point of view to examine the underlying logic of sexist ideology among police. It is suggested that women police crystallize meanings of certain cultural oppositions in terms of gender categories. Female-male dichotomies become the basis for reading oppositions that are primarily organizational and these in turn are mediated by higher level meanings and unconscious fantasies about men and women. Men's sexist attitudes and behaviors towards policewomen are examined in terms of these historically specific and situationally derived cultural and unconscious meanings.