Promoting Women Among Prison Officers: An Organizational Analysis

This chapter summarizes the objectives, the approach undertaken, and the results related to action research carried out in correctional institutions in a Swiss canton. The aim was to identify organizational, managerial, and individual measures to feminize the profession of prison officer. After conducting about 50 semi-directed interviews with senior and middle management, as well as with male and female prison officers, several obstacles to this feminization were identified. Subsequently, a questionnaire was sent to all employees of these institutions to better identify the obstacles and the levers to the feminization of this profession. Recommendations were then proposed at the structural, organizational, and individual levels. This study emphasizes the importance of structural measures, such as changes in working hours or childcare support, as well as cultural measures, such as a change in the role of the profession and a change in mentality.