Women in security

[Eric]

I have been told that men do not communicate, that does not seem to be the case for security men in this and other forums.
Many of the same problems must be dealt with though, why are women not taking part?
Sure there are fewer women in the industry, but there must be other reasons...

[N. A. Corbier]

Taking part on these forums? Many people don't even think that there are forums for "security guards." After all, the company that runs this forum writes industry news for security integrators and alarm personnel.

It only recently (last few months) became popular with contract and proprietary security personnel.

[Guest]

I think that the problems with the security industry as a whole are what keep good applicants away, not just females. Low pay, long hours, no prestige, "wanna-be cop" image, no career path, little advancement opportunities, and the list goes on.

However, I know that many females see security work as a male-oriented and male-dominated industry. These females are afraid of sexual and other types of harassment, of not being able to "fit in" and be "one of the boys", as well as being afraid of getting hurt by some bad guy.

I would like to see more females in the industry. At my last security job, the best security guard I ever had was a female. Also, I have had a few female cops as partners as a police officer and with only one exception, they were great cops.

[burley]

how do you know the gender of the forum participants?

Hmmm? How did you determine the gender of this forum's users? Only certain women are interested in work that may pose a risk. Historically these jobs have been held by men, as they were the "tougher" gender.

[Eric]

Hmmm? How did you determine the gender of this forum's users?

Growing up with sisters, reading news reports, Taking a short course with John Reid & Assoc. Oh, and just a guess.

[HotelSecurity]

My senior Officer is female. We were one of the first hotels in Montreal to hire females in hotel security. We had a female director for a few months. (She was incompetent but not because she was a female).

[hrdickinson]

Probably because women feel they have better things to do than post replies on a forum at 10:50p as Im am now doing!

[aka Bull]

Just under a third of our in-house officers are female.

[Mall Director]

This is socially typical..

The whole men and women issue of which gender is common and not in industries is wide spread. This is not the only area that has fewer women than men, but LE has the same statistics.

If a person wished to view the Physiological explination as to why, some specialists would say that "women typically are more mentally mind set in operating in careers where mental consistancy are better performed due to a different portion of the cerebellum being used, as where men are more physically driven to operate in an non-consistant environment." In other words, women have more of a "pay attention to detail" mindframe, in which they accel in administrative oriented tasks. These tasks require repetitious behaviors with minor inconsistancies drawing more attention from them to pick up on. Where men on the other hand operate with mental levels of consistant inaccuracies and the "undetermined variables" always present, but direction of the motivator is for the end result being considered the same.

Genra-Social Specialists would say that in our current society, our mentality still view our female counter-parts as nurturers, and not exterminators. Even as far as we have advanced in our equality of the genders, females are still viewed differently. Taking for example the military, religion, "good ol' boy systems", and the corporate world, these areas are still operated on an older mentality that females are more important in domesticated roles, while the male counterparts are vital in growth development of the society, as they have a more aggressive nature.

Some Biological Psychologists would say that under the microscope the female holds genetics driven by estrogen and males are driven by testosterone. Saying this, their foundation states that the chemical differences determine what we as a gender are more driven to do. Females wish to repair and seek out emotional motives, while males seek out dominative behaviors.

My own belief, is that our current social trend leaves alot of growth to be continued before we see more female counter parts in our industry. Too much favoritism played out by leaders and general public interests will determine the gender flow. Currently, our society still under pay women compared to men in many different fields. Women are treated differently in many of the Enforcement fields, in that most of the male population view women as weaker, and have to be watchful around them, as we "may be called upon to save (assist) the females in dangerous situations". Taking a look at the military for one, many males in a co-ed style unit, will view women as weaker, as they have different physical fitness standards, and mid leadership will treat them differently according to current beliefs. "We may charge into battle together, but if a female should fall, we need to be on the spot to rectify, regardless of circumstances, and casualty concerns". Males still rush to the aid of females, even if they are in the fatal range, and disregard the males that are still salvagable. This is counter productive, but the mentality given to us by our parents, as this is the way they were to live by.

For my own personal insight, I have one female officer and several male officers in my department. I have re-trained their mindset, in that everyone is equal, and standards will be the same. I am fortunate enough this has worked, but wished I had more female applicants. My corporation on the top levels has the courtesy of sacraficing quality for gender concerns. Even though we stretch from one end to the next in the US, we have only one female director of security. Interestingly enough, this director was my assistant, in which I trained, and she took off to operate her own department. Sadly, she has forgotten, or wishes not to, take with her all the good stuff I though I instilled in her, to be a great leader, and is now causing conflict in her area. This left the "higher ups" with a dilema, as they wish not to sacrifice a "female manager", and their only one, as they have "killed off" many males preceeding her, for less. This is another form of gender selected preference. Even though we have a leader who is falling short severely of our standards, we will keep her at all costs and disrupt the system, as loosing a female leader, the only one we have, is not an option. Its a system of "affirmative action" thinking that we all have been sucked into!

[HotelSecurity]

I'm being really general here & it will probably sound sexist but here's what I see when it comes to women & men & work outside of the house:

From a woman's point of view they work 5 days a week.

A man sees it as having 2 days off a week.

Do you get the difference?

[The Lord of the Keys]

I would consider the ratio difference between males and females to be a mixture of both our cultural views as well as genuine pysical differences. The biological differences are real, both in mental outlook and chemical processes. on top of that our culture has increased the differences by building on the inherent tendencies. Still people have a range of abilities. For a simple example men run faster than women. This is biological but it does not mean that all men are faster then all women. It is a tendency. A female olympic runner will outrun 99% of men except the male olympic runner.
Now I'm not saying that this applies to security. Our actual job seldom requires high pysical strength. I just think that most women think of security as a male job. I have no problem with this. I don't know what rule makes people think that there must be some kind of equility of numbers in any field. Just let people do what they want and let the numbers just be whatever they are.
On a personal level I would be more hesitant to place a woman in a dangerous situation than a man. I know many feminists dislike the idea of a male wanting to protect them, but don't the women who are not feminists have the right to want to feel protected if thats what they want.
I know many couples but I don't know of any man who would hear a noise at night and send his wife out to see what it is, but I've never known a woman who had a problem sending her husband out.

[ozsecuritychic]

hi all,I havent been on for a while got married and had alot of stuff going on. Here we have a few female security officers a bloke just left the company that i worked for and was replaced by a lady. I have found that i dont get near the trouble that the guys get, People here think it is a good thing if they can get one over the tuff male security guard but if they got beaten by a female they would look like complete idiots.

[copelandamuffy]

Both my wife and I are Security Officers. We both work for Securitas.
I know it sounds prejudice but I believe my wife is a darn good officer
Case in point: My wife pulls into work on a Sunday morning and the
overnight Guard told her that about 5 o'clock in the morning a
couple pulled into the South parking lot and they had been intoxicated
and were sleeping it off. The overnight Guard did not want to
bother the local cops. { Our small commuinity has Barney and Floyd the barber working overniights}

My wife knew what could happen if nothing was done
One of the two intoxicated persons could fall down and
sue the company where she is a Guard. My wife called the
local police and they came up and took the couple away.

I know most of the other Security Officers who work
with my wife. They have nothing but praise for
her vigilant, and superb access control. My wife
never complains and has gone to work when we here
in Boston were being buried with 15 inches of snow

I have worked with men 45 years old who sound like
little crying babies.

As an Account Manager I cannot have my wife work for me.
But her Account Manager has kind words for her.

My wife has also been benefical when they needed to have
a female Guard go into the ladies locker room where she is a guard
for investigation of theft by a suspected female employee of
stealing things from other females

[Mall Director]

hi all,I havent been on for a while got married and had alot of stuff going on. Here we have a few female security officers a bloke just left the company that i worked for and was replaced by a lady. I have found that i dont get near the trouble that the guys get, People here think it is a good thing if they can get one over the tuff male security guard but if they got beaten by a female they would look like complete idiots.

We have the opposite problem.. If my female officers (yes, i finally have more than one..woohoo!) come off nice at all, people just go ape and walk on them, so before I turn them loose after training, I turn them hostile and aggressive. People seem to listen better to women if they are not so enclined to be nice. Male subjects and female teens are the big issues for my female officers.

But I do enjoy a good violating, when a subject, especially a female subject thinks that she has gotten away with stealing, because no "male officer" will search her.. Thats when my sunshine (one of my female officers nicknames) comes in with the ol latex gloves... Whoo, i love the reaction!

[ozsecuritychic]

WE are taught to say please and thankyou but only once, after that i aint nice at all. and just for the record my husband tells me when there is something going on outside the house of a night, one night one of the neighbours was creeping around so I sat out on the front porch with my mag light turned off and waited till he ventured over to my house and what do you know he actually called the police on me for attacking him. funny thing thou he had to try to explain why he was at our house.