Women as police officers: integration, discrimination, sexual violence and democratic transformation of police institutions in Latin America.

This article reviews and systematizes social studies on gender and policing in Latin America. The objective is to highlight the central issues and main contributions made by research on police structures, their recent transformations, and the challenges arising from the impact of the growing integration of women. The article is organized into four axes emerging from the bibliographic analysis: the characteristics of the processes of incorporation of women into the police force; discussions on police work and gender; the impact on women's professional careers; and the place of sexuality, workplace harassment, and sexual violence in the police work environment. The conclusions are drawn from two perspectives. The first, at the bibliographic level, highlights the limited regional dialogue and exchange that impedes feedback on the studies produced. The second, at the conceptual level, indicates agreement regarding the complexity and contradictions in the processes of incorporating women into policing. In particular, the novel nature of this phenomenon disrupts more traditional gender relations and coexists simultaneously with strategies to reaffirm those same values based on male dominance within police institutions.