Summary

There are more women than ever in the security industry, but it remains a male-dominated profession. Women already in the profession believe certain initiatives—which are not universal—could encourage more women to enter and remain in security, including ones at the industry level (like highlighting career diversity) and organizational level (like family friendly policies and flexible scheduling).

Issue

Security organizations often find it challenging to attract talent and fill positions, a problem made worse by a lack of female applicants and a lingering impression that the industry is not entirely female friendly.

Benefits

Women represent a talented resource pool that has gone untapped, so both the security industry as a whole and individual security organizations stand to benefit when women see opportunity in (and feel accepted by) the industry.

Process or Approach

Stakeholders should incorporate relevant strategies to help attract women and improve overall perception of the industry.

1. Improve outreach to young women by enhancing the visibility of female role models in the industry, including highlighting their successes, to help show that security careers are not just for men.

2. Highlight the professional nature of today’s security work—and promote its differing roles requiring a diverse set of skills—to attract women who may still see security as an unskilled profession in which physical is the primary requirement.

3. Facilitate a working environment and organizational culture that is attractive to all and ensures equal treatment of all staff.

4. Proactively explore unfair treatment or inequality; don’t assume that a strongly worded policies and a lack of complaints from female workers necessarily equates with gender equality.

5. Examine whether there is residual bias from when security was more male dominated with respect to the channeling of employees to promotion opportunities.

6. Conduct stress reduction initiatives to improve retention of female security officers, as studies show they have high occupational stress in comparison to male security guards and often have added stress from trying to balance family and work obligations.

Also, consider specific strategies during recruitment of job applicants.

• Move towards language, imagery, and descriptions that send a far clearer message that roles are not just for men;

• Address factors that may automatically exclude applications from women (such as requiring a military background and looking more favorably on time out of employment which may be due to parental/caregiver responsibilities); and

• adopt practices (such as blind CVs) to overcome potential bias when shortlisting.