| dc.description.abstract | A long research tradition has documented gender
differences in career choices and outcomes in
several professions, including the police. However,
there is debate about whether such differences
reflect initial preferences, socially constructed ideas
about the incompatibility of family and working
life or the objective constraints that men and
women meet in their careers and family lives. This
paper explores the initial preferences for career
and promotion among male and female police
students in Norway. Norwegian female police
students are selected rigorously; they have chosen
a traditionally male-dominated profession, and
they live in a welfare society where the possibilities
for combining work and family life are well
developed. Under these circumstances, will the
initial promotion aspirations of men and women
differ? If so, will gender differences persist when
family obligations and age are controlled for?
These questions were explored using 2009 and
2010 data for first-year police students in Norway
(N = 1,079). The results showed that male
and female police students have remarkably similar
aspirations for promotion, and this remained
true when family obligations and age were controlled
for. The results indicate that differences in
initial preferences do not explain gender differences
in career choices and outcomes. | no_NO |
