Women in law enforcement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Women in law enforcement - Essay Example According to (Jon Felperin, 2005) in 1845, the first women to be hired by the New York City Police Department were called "matrons." In 1985, Penny Harrington of the Portland Oregon Police Department became the first female Chief of Police, Today, once the last bastion of male domination in the workplace, police organizational attitudes are finally beginning to change. And yet serious problems still remain. In 2004, women accounted for only 12.7 percent of all sworn law enforcement positions in large agencies and the numbers are declining. The percentage of sworn female officers in smaller agencies is even lower in spite of women comprising at 46.5 percent of the entire labor force. There could be many possible reasons for the decline in the number of women pursuing careers in law enforcement. Although research shows that women can be just as effective as men, uneven hiring practices, selection processes and recruitment policies keep the number of women artificially low. Often women are screened out of the selection process early on; as a result of certain entry level tests that favor upper body strength or previous life experience, such as military service. Most women never even consider a career in law enforcement to begin with, due to their misunderstanding of the nature of the job, and the aggressive and authoritarian images portrayed in the media. Once hired, however, women still face discrimination, sexual harassment, or even peer intimidation, and they often lack the necessary role models or mentors to help them move up the ranks. Many never even take promotional exams, giving first priority to family or personal relationships. All of this thwarts any efforts to recruit and retain more women, and is, in part, why numbers remain stagnant or continue to decline. And yet, recent changes in policing philosophy, emphasizing problem solving and community over intervention, have brought to light glaring inefficiencies and injustices. Widespread excessive force and corruption scandals, overwhelmingly attributed to male officers, are costing cities millions of dollars a year in lawsuit payouts. Because female officers utilize a different policing style and rely less on physical force and more on communications skills, potentially violent confrontations and are less likely to occur, or escalate into excessive force situations. Thus citizen complaints, or civil liabilities, are substantially less likely to occur. The implications of not having a representative number of female officers are clear. The under-representation of women at all levels in the modern police agency negatively impacts the culture and operational efficiency of law enforcement agencies throughout the country. Given the many difficult challenges facing modern agencies, the need to hire more women has never been more urgent. Women in law enforcement: Law enforcement has thus traditionally been regarded as a "man's job," and, while women have now been on patrol for three decades, many policemen still hold highly negative views of policewomen such as that they are physically incapable, insufficiently aggressive, too emotional, mentally weak, naive, and incapable of gaining the respect of citizens. Research has shown, however, that this is not the case: policewomen are as capable as their male counterparts, and, in many instances, better suited for police

Southwest Airlines Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Southwest Airlines - Research Paper Example This airline particularly targeted the bottom-of-the-pyramid market segment by offering no-frills services that resulted in reduced fares. It was claimed to be one of the most low cost carriers as it offered high frequency and short hauls matched with point-to-point service and reasonable fares (Inkpen 5). Unlike its competitors, Southwest did not believe in the hub-and-spoke system as it resulted in congestion and a lot of time wasted in the process of waiting for customers to arrive from other airports. In the words of the company’s Annual report, the company was poised to manage well in good times so as to sustain during bad times (Inkpen 1). Even though the company enjoys a high volume of passenger traffic and high turnover, it has met with various challenges. The most important challenge was the increasing efficiency of legacy carriers in the U.S along with large mergers such as those between Delta and Northwest that was leading to industry consolidation (Inkpen 1). Such consolidations were a threat to companies such as Southwest since the consolidated companies had access to lower operating costs (owing in part due to joint resources) as well as higher prices of tickets which is something Southwest did not focus on. This is reflected in the fact that, according to the financial statements, Southwest possesses the lowest â€Å"average revenue passenger miles† per passenger and has the highest operating margin in the industry (Inkpen 3). However, since passenger yield is high (reflecting high volume of passengers), Southwest has managed to rack up profits in years when others have faced losses. The company also possesses the lowest costs (including unit costs, labor costs and number of employees per aircraft) which add to its source of competitive advantage. However, the company’s ability to offer low fares at low costs has been challenged by smaller airlines such as JetBlue and Allegiant. Furthermore, the acquisition of Air Tran was a big challenge as it would require downsizing, acquiring new fleet as well as moving into non-U.S destinations. One of the major issues faced by the company was the attempts by its competitors to prevent the company from flourishing. Time and again various airlines that were Texas based tried to tilt law in their favor; however, the company succeeded in its legal proceedings. In line with further attempts to outdo its competitors, Southwest offered unmatched low fares such as $59 compared to $310 offered by its competitors (Inkpen 4). Although this was a good thing in one way, it was difficult to position these fares as regular and not introductory fares in the minds of customers. Positioning the brand through such low prices was, therefore, the ultimate challenge. Another issue faced by the company as that of growing and expanding its operations. There was some resistance by employees to this idea which could result in losing markets to rivals. Furthermore, entry into the northeast region did pose threat to the company’s operations due to congestion on airport and high turnaround times at airports. The company might consider using â€Å"drive through airport† models that reduce the number of lanes that the aircraft must pass through. Perhaps the most pressing issue is the Air Tran deal which requires merger of two airlines with different mindsets and operations. There was a difference in the type of fleets used along with Air