Routledge Women Police in Contemporary China: Gender and Policing (Routledge Studies in Policing and Society)

This is the first book to look at women in policing in the mainland of the People’s Republic of China. Informed by empirical data as well as rich secondary information drawn from a wide range of published materials, and written by a former police officer in China, this book offers a detailed discussion of key issues concerning women in the Chinese police. Mainly drawing on face-to-face interviews with police officers and student probationers in multiple force areas, Women Police in Contemporary China offers rich insights into women’s lives in Chinese policing. The book first discusses how Chinese women were introduced to the male-only organisation and their representation in the Chinese police today. It elaborates women’s experiences as female officers in the police and, more specifically, their everyday work, contributions to policing, women police’s own perceptions of their roles and positions in the police profession and the gendered challenges and concerns facing them. It also looks at police occupational culture from a gendered lens. This book is illuminating reading for all those engaged in policing studies, gender and justice, policymaking, comparative criminal justice and all those interested in a woman’s role in the Chinese police. Review Anqi Shen’s fascinating study of women police in China reminds us that comparative scholarship cannot ignore national contexts, policies, and goals. Through China’s "policing flowers," Shen documents how the Chinese government, the Communist Party, and societal views of sex roles influence police men and women and reinforce the starkly different positions they hold in their agencies. Dorothy Moses Schulz, Ph.D., Professor Emerita, John Jay College of Criminal Justice This book is a penetrating insight into the position of women in the Chinese police revealing the paradox of notional gender equality and women's entrapment within Chinese society which remains patriarchal, with stereotypes, traditional gender norms and sex role expectations constraining women's full participation in policing. Theoretically it offers an alternative to Western democratic models of women's progression and ingenuously gathered empirical data give fascinating accounts of policewomen's lived experiences. A book for scholars of police culture, gender studies and students of Sinology. Professor Jennifer Brown, Mannheim Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science About the Author Anqi Shen is Professor of Law at Northumbria Law School, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom.