Women's Integration into Policing in South Korea: A Qualitative Study of Career Experiences and Organisational Justice

This thesis examines the nature and extent of women's integration into Korean policing from a feminist perspective, focusing on female officers' experiences and the organisational context that shapes them. Women's representation in Korean policing has gradually increased, but the gender reforms since 2018 and the subsequent social backlash, including misogynistic discourse targeting female officers, raise questions about whether this progress has led to substantive integration. Drawing on Acker's (1990, 2012) theory of gendered organisations, organisational justice theory, and Brown's (1997) model of women's progress in policing, the study analyses data from in-depth and focus group interviews with 40 female officers.

The expansion of women's roles in the Korean police has largely been driven by organisational needs emphasising gender differences. Within this context, female officers' career experiences can be summarised through three key themes. 'Negotiating gendered work' focuses on the ways female officers manage structural constraints, including gendered task assignments, exclusion, diminished authority, and harassment. 'Organisational justice and career navigation' looks at how organisational structures, culture, and caregiving responsibilities shape female officers' career trajectories, influencing their perceptions of organisational justice. The theme of 'between tension and solidarity' reveals the complex relational dynamics among female officers. Competition, hierarchy, and generational divides created tensions, but some officers also built solidarity through mutual support, pointing to its potential role in driving organisational change.

By placing the Korean case in a broader international context, this thesis highlights common patterns as well as features unique to South Korea, contributing to the Western-focused literature on gender and policing. The findings reveal that women's integration in South Korea remains incomplete and that full integration will require both organisational reforms and shifts in everyday culture and relationships, alongside recognising and supporting female officers as agents of change.