The gendering of part-time work in Victoria Police

In police services, both in Australia and internationally, attention has been focused on increasing the representation of women. The diversity approach favored by Human Resource Management and organisational theorists has contended that flexible working practices, specifically part-time employment, are a crucial mechanism to achieving this. However, as this study highlights, part-time work has become increasingly sex-segregated and associated with lower status and lower paid work, resulting in poor career prospects relative to full-time employment. The current study draws upon quantitative research collected in Victoria Police in 2004 exploring the experiences of, and attitudes toward part-time work (Victoria Police 2004). Utilising Acker’s (1990) theory of gendered organisation as a theoretical framework for investigation, a feminist comparative research methodology was applied to secondary data, using gender as an explanatory construct. This research suggests that part-time employment is a ‘double jeopardy’ for women, as gender inequalities inherent to policing are further exacerbated. Part-time women have lower organisational status, compared to men. Women chose part-time work to care for young children, whereas men do so for personal and career interests. Relatedly, police women and men work part-time differently; men work part-time for less time and enjoy more flexible shift arrangements, compared to women. Finally, full-time women and men deem part-time work to be of less value than full-time. The application of a feminist comparative research methodology to gender-neutral research which emphasised diversity, offers a unique insight into a deeply gendered organisation, with mutually reinforcing structures and processes that serve to persistently uphold and repeatedly reproduce women’s marginalised place in the organisation, albeit in a new form. The growth of part-time work in Victoria Police, taken up predominately by women, if not closely monitored and adjusted accordingly, may be reinforcing the low value of part-time work and thereby exacerbating the gender inequality that already exists.