April Duncan
New Jersey State Police
This past semester, I completed my 150 hour internship with the New Jersey State Police. I interned in the Office of Analytical Support (OAS), a civilian office within the Investigations Branch. I went into this internship because I have considered a career in law enforcement, and I wanted to see how women function in work settings traditionally controlled by men. It is well-known that the State Police is dominated by men, providing the ideal setting to see how women function within law enforcement; however, being that I was in a civilian office, there were two women (four women by the time I completed my internship!), and three men. Therefore, I think that I did not fully experience gender relations as I hoped. Nonetheless, this experience, even within a traditional office setting, proves that gender really does function everywhere. The following is an abstract from my On-Sight Journal:
Thursday September 16th: I also want to mention one person (I believe his name is DeLorenzo) who works in the same building, but in a different office of the State Police, and stops by our cubicle every so often. He’s a pretty funny guy- once he found out that I was doing my internship as a part of a course in feminism, he took on the role of class clown. For example, I live in Hamilton, as do many of the people that work in that office complex. I was discussing with one of the women how a girl’s soccer coach in one of Hamilton’s high school was recently fired. Mr. DeLorenzo [knowing that I was a feminist] comments “first of all, there shouldn’t be a girl’s soccer team.” And today, he called Verna [who sits alongside my desk] “dear”, and then asked me if it was okay [to call her “dear”]. I think he’s really funny-and I also like him because he the only person so far who has asked me what I was taking this internship for. I sometimes wonder what people, outside my group of feminist friends, think of my major and interest in feminism. And while I do find Mr. DeLorenzo’s comments funny, as they are facetious, I can’t help feeling that he making a mockery of the fact that I’m a feminist.
At the time, I did not take Mr. DeLorenzo’s comments seriously, but perhaps I should.
I also found out that employees of the State Police are told to use gender-neutral terms, like “person hours” versus “man hours”. I think that this is a good thing—no, a great thing—because I believe that there is a lot of power behind language. However, I feel that many employees mocked this policy. Looking back, I wished I had asked Verna (or one of the other female employees) how they feel about this policy. I did not have any experiences while my time interning that I feel were indicative of overt sexism, although I believe that latent sexism most definitely exists. I also wonder if sexism exists to a greater degree in environments (ie: in the police stations) where there are very few, if any at all, women in the work environment.
While I had hoped that I would be placed in an actual police station, I still found this internship to be a great experience. The people I worked with did not make me feel like an intern; I never once made coffee or had to file papers. Instead, my supervisor let me work on projects the rest of OAS worked on. Furthermore, this internship taught me about things that I do not want in my career, most importantly that I don’t ever want to work at a desk. I sat at a desk from the time I walked in until the time I left (excluding lunch and coffee breaks). While I detested sitting at a desk during my internship, I’m glad that I learned it now versus learning it when I am already in the workforce. Sometimes, the things you dislike the most about the internship are the most valuable as you look to your future, because you’ll remember these dislikes more than what you loved.
The best piece of advice I can give future interns: Even if your placement isn’t ideal, go with it. My placement wasn’t ideal, but I worked with some of the nicest people I may ever meet (they even bought me a State Police shirt when I left!), and no matter where you complete your internship, you will learn a lot about a tremendous amount. You will learn not only about how the professional work environment functions, but about how women function in the workplace, and about what you out of your career.