How Precarious Public Jobs Are Even More Precarious for Women: The Case of Mexican Police Forces

Mariana Chudnovsky,Ana Laura Reyes Millán

doi:10.25222/larr.833

Mariana Chudnovsky, Ana Laura Reyes Millán

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.25222/larr.833

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Abstract

This article works to understand what happens to women working in the public sector, especially women in traditionally male occupations, such as the police. Moreover, in Latin America and in most developing countries, it is crucial to examine the interaction between precarious jobs and gender discrimination. The article finds that gender discrimination is accentuated in organizations with precarious labor conditions. To illustrate this problem, it examines the police force in Mexico. This is a crucial case study for understanding the phenomena: Mexico is an extremely violent country, but conditions in the police force are highly precarious for workers. Moreover, this labor precariousness has an even greater impact on female police officers. In addition to working in a profession characterized by instability, they also face structural barriers to the performance of their duties and greater obstacles to entry and promotion within the organization. Furthermore, women face the glass ceiling as well as a hostile work culture that expresses itself through discrimination.

Highlights

Much research focuses on the barriers for women working in areas dominated by men
The aspiration of stable employment is a key motivation for applying to the police: in 2017, 36.5 percent of police officers indicated that need for money and a job were the main reasons for entering the police force, while 13.9 percent said that it was their best option for economic stability (INEGI 2017)
The tacit promise of social mobility is usually broken by what turns out to be a relatively precarious job. We argue that this situation interacts with preexisting gender structural discrimination against women—who must combine their broader family and home responsibilities with the demands of their paid work. While these inequalities could be either reduced or exacerbated by work life, we show that a precarious job, such as with the police force, exacerbates these inequalities

Summary

Introduction

Much research focuses on the barriers for women working in areas dominated by men. what happens if they work in a male-dominated environment and in a precarious job? We study the police because in many countries a career in policing often represents an opportunity for upward social mobility, usually based on better salaries and benefits, as it offers a stable job in public service. There do not appear to be differences in precariousness by gender alone—except for the dimension of legal and practical obstacles, where women are more likely (59.7 percent) than men (56.8 percent) to consider that their opinion is not taken into account and that their bosses do not respect their right of association (see Table 3).

Results

Conclusion