Las jefas. Género y poder en la policía de la provincia de Buenos Aires

This doctoral thesis sets out to analyze the challenges that gender poses to power relations within the police department in the province of Buenos Aires (Argentina), based on the experiences of female police officers who reach leadership positions. The first part analyzes the institutional processes of socialization and construction of divisions between male and female members of the police department, since the admission of women in 1947 until the creation of the Gender Policy Headquarters in 2015. Subsequently, a gender map is presented which reveals how hierarchies are distributed in the police department in the province of Buenos Aires. The second part of the thesis analyzes the experiences and practices of female police chiefs, from the minority group who make it to top-level posts, to the majority who are concentrated in positions as heads of Women and Family Precincts. Their personal and professional career paths provide insight into some of the hierarchical organizational criteria rooted in gender relations that cross-cut the police institution.