Summary:

In this master thesis we treat problem areas Gender Equality Strategies - intentions and
realities of police and sheriff's department, with research questions: "What characterizes the
recruitment process and what factors promote and hinder achievement of objectives to ensure
consistency between objectives and practices regarding recruitment of women leaders?"
The reason for the choice of topic was the Police Reform 2000 - a safer community, which
laid emphasis on structure, organization and personnel policy guidelines. The personnel
policy guidelines described gender equality strategies as an important contribution to place
police in a strategic position. This was described as a necessary adaptation and the
development in the face of a globalized and international social development. Police reform
is a result of New Public Management (NPM) wave, which went through Europe and the
world in the late 80's and 90's. The main objectives of the Police Reform 2000 emphasized
that the police should have broad recruitment, and that democracy was best served by police
officers and women had broad social background. This was intended to strengthen the
community's confidence in the police. Awareness of gender equality should be a factor in
making the workplace attractive. The culture and attitudes in the agency had to be developed
from being an agency dominated by men, to an agency more clearly seemed inclusive and
valuation of in terms of women's skills and experience base. The police, as civil society's
power apparatus, are set to enforce peace and order to maintain trust and confidence. An
active recruitment policy is intended to help the police reflect society. Police Directorate
believes that the recruitment efforts provide strong signals about the organization's
relationship with legal and ethical standards. The current practice in the recruitment of
women police trained leadership shows multiple fractures of both legal and ethical standards.
The police doesn`t reflect the population when it comes to sex, and our thesis has shown that
women are not recruited in the same way as male applicants for managerial positions in the
police. This is despite the written policy and organizational guidelines where there is a clear
goal of gender equality at all levels of police and sheriff's department.
With gender equality strategies that the main theme of the thesis, we chose three data sources
as possible contributions to respond to the problem area and research questions. This was a
survey, interviews and document analysis. Selected theories are integrated perspective,
strategic management, power, legitimacy and analytical models describing the police's
strategic position, mission, choices and actions. Although gender equality strategies have
clear political and organizational constraints, it turned out that the police recruitment process
had far more and serious consequences, than we were aware of. It has also become clear to us
that equality meets resistance in the organization where the goal of more female leaders is not
accepted. We have examined the behavior and attitudes in different perspectives through the
recruitment process for police and sheriff's department. The main findings in this thesis show
that dual recruitment system for asymmetric information about applicants. Goal on gender
equality strategies are not understood and / or accepted. The intentions of equality are many,
the realities haven`t been operationalized. Power Systems is constituted, and provides
negative consequences for gender equality strategies. Rules for recruitment provide results in
both unconscious and conscious offense. Women have often been discriminated against in
the recruitment process. Institutionalized features recognized through historical cultural
theory, which prevent women from coming into leadership positions. The current recruitment
structure allows for bullying and harassment of applicants for management positions.
Equality Strategy - the intentions and realities can`t be identified to a specific system, process
or a specific description of police and sheriff's department. This is how we see different
degrees of equality in the various systems and the challenges which change strategies that
should or must be selected, if gender equality to be achieved and operationalized. Our master
thesis has revealed findings, which must be taken seriously where changes must be
implemented both at the political, organizational, group and individual level.