Post #16

Britton explains that the pathway to becoming a correctional officer differs between individuals and between the genders.

The one consensus that both men and women came to was that they did not expect to become correctional officers, they weren’t working or aspiring to become one.

Britton saw that there was a difference in the type of work that men and women had before turning to a job as a correctional officer. Many men were prior military personnel or in a field in which they physically exerted themselves daily. Women, on the other hand, held mostly clerical, office-type jobs or positions in childcare.

Women were more drawn to a job as a correctional officer after seeing the benefits, retirement opportunities and reasonable pay, especially after being newly divorced.

There are a few appealing aspects about a job as a correctional officer. First, prisons are located in more rural areas where jobs with good pay and benefits are far and few between. Second, prerequisites for being a correctional officer are only having a high school diploma or GED and passing a standardized exam and going through training academies.

Social networks push men and women in different directions when it comes to employment. Women are not encouraged to go into the field of criminal justice and especially not into being a police officer or prison guard. Women are discouraged from this field because it is seen as being dangerous or a masculine field. Women’s fear of violence and the stereotype that women are not violent beings keeps women from being pushed into this field of work. Men also are not pushed into this field, and almost take a job as a correctional officer as a last resort. Society in general does not market the job of a correctional officer to either sex.