Sexismo no ambiente de trabalho policial: um estudo à luz da teoria da ação planejada

Abstract

The historical construction of the notion of individual and society is marked by different attributions of value to men and women, ranking the differences between the sexes in order to position the male being as superior to the female, with the belief of female inferiority being reaffirmed by the stereotyped image of woman. In this sense, we observe that sexism, as prejudice and discrimination against women, can also be observed in the work environment, in an interpersonal and institutional way, especially in environments considered typically male, such as police institutions. In this context of stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination against women, we believe it is important to study sexism in the workplace. That said, we initially carried out a Systematic Literature Review that aimed to identify and analyze studies that deal with “expressions of sexism in the workplace”. Therefore, we performed a bibliographic search in the SciELO, PePSIC, LILACS, Index Psi, PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES and Web of Science databases and selected 129 articles, which were submitted to manual analysis and by the IRAMUTEQ software. The results showed greater publication in recent years, a predominance of international and quantitative empirical articles and that the topic is of multidisciplinary interest, with emphasis on Psychology. The studies present a well-defined methodological structure and emphasize the ambivalent character of sexism, its institutional manifestation and the figure of woman as victim of this phenomenon. The theme is of growing interest, but deserves more attention in the local context. Subsequently, we carried out an empirical study based on the Theory of Planned Behavior that aimed to verify sexist experiences with an emphasis on evidencing the salient beliefs of behavioral, normative and control nature related to the female behavioral intention to combat sexism in the police work environment. Therefore, we conducted semi-structured individual interviews with a sample of 29 civil policewomen from the State of Alagoas, whose speeches were transcribed and analyzed manually and using the IRAMUTEQ software. The results confirmed that sexism is strong in the police environment, manifested in a hostile or benevolent way in interpersonal and institutional relationships, with emphasis on hostile sexism by co-workers. Control beliefs were more prominent, followed by behavioral beliefs, demonstrating that the policewomen perceive more facilitating and restrictive/impeding factors of the behavior in question compared to advantages/disadvantages and social referents, that may indicate a greater impact of these control beliefs about behavioral intention. Sexism is related to the condition of the policewoman as a woman, professional and mother and is reflected in protection, sexual division of labor, punishments, jokes, disqualifying comments, inferiorization, isolation, exclusion and questions about the female capacity in the profession. Other factors raised in beliefs may be related to organizational climate and harassment (moral and sexual). This dissertation reached the proposed objectives and we believe that its results can expand the understanding and debate on the subject, encouraging new studies and supporting public policies to combat sexism in the workplace.