Abstract
Although law enforcement in general, remains a male dominated profession, the question of whether or not a woman can complete the tasks necessary to do the job is no longer the pressing issue. Many women today are highly successful in their law enforcement careers and have proven their value to the profession. But female officers/agents remain to be a low percentage of the workforce profile. As of September 30, 2004 female Special Agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) make up only 8.8% of sworn agents otherwise known as 181 ls (DEA Workforce Profile, 2004). This study will suggest that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is partly to blame for these low numbers because the DOJ refuses to allow its own successful Alternative Work Schedule (AWS) options to be utilized by DEA's 1811 class workforce-special agents. This exclusion contributes to low job satisfaction and a devastating loss in retention of female agents. In 2004 a voluntary survey was sent out to all 442 female agents of the DEA regarding questions related to job satisfaction, retention, A WS and work life balance issues. Approximately 25 percent of the female agents responded to the survey along with providing additional contact with the researcher via emails, interviews and narratives to open ended questions on the survey. Information received from the respondents clearly showed that DEA's female agent population is dwindling at the senior agent level and is by no means comparative to its male counterparts. Female DEA agents (69%), particularly after starting a family, are thinking of resigning because of their struggles with balancing work and family.
Nearly every female agent knew of a female agent who had left the DEA because of work and life issues. The DOJ excludes special agents from participating in A WS because they work a non-standard workweek, which ironically is the baseline of AWS. They should reconsider in order to increase retention by implementing A WS; 80 percent of the respondents thought this to be a good idea/solution and one that would also increase the low percentage (27.6%) of female agents that are satisfied with their job.