A social constructionist account of police culture and its influence on the representation and progression of female officers: A repertory grid analysis in a UK police force Available to Purchase

The police organisation receives much media attention regarding its record on Equal Opportunities. Research suggests that the organisational culture in police organisations plays a major role in impeding the progress of women. Using repertory grid technique, the culture of a police force, conceptualised at the level of performance value judgements or recipe knowledge was investigated. It is argued that rank, rather than gender has the greatest influence on the content of performance value judgements and that this is attributable to the way that hierarchy influences the way in which the grass‐roots role is constructed. We argue that women’s progression is impeded not because of dominant constructions of the role per se, but by the way such constructions intersect with broader socio‐cultural constructions of women’s domestic roles.