Sugar and spice … and a badge and a gun: A cross-national descriptive comparison of women’s involvement in policing

Women’s involvement in policing has been an area of study in the United States, but research in other countries has been sporadic. Comparative research, in particular, is scant in the literature on women’s involvement in policing. To address this gap in knowledge, this study explores differences between countries with high and low proportions of officers who are female. Qualitatively comparing these countries, several distinctions emerged between countries with a small percentage (< 5%) of female police (Albania, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia and Japan) and countries with a high percentage (> 18%) of female police (Estonia, Slovenia, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom). Four of the five low percentage countries are located in Asia, with a higher population density, homicide rate and economic inequality (as measured by the Gini Index) than most of the countries with a high percentage of female officers. These low percentage countries also have yet to abolish capital punishment, whereas all high percentage countries have done so. In addition, two of the low percentage countries, but none of the high percentage countries, were involved in a civil war during the data collection period; two of the high percentage countries, but no low percentage countries, were involved in interstate war. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.