Equal opportunity and treatment in law enforcement began in the 1970s with targeted hiring drives toward women and other minority groups. The indoctrination to this line of work begins with police academy training, where cadets are subject to a paramilitary environment for many months. This dissertation explores how women perceive their role and status in police work, but more specifically how they see themselves as newly minted cadets in police training. Through stories of six recent female graduates, this study dives into how they saw the curriculum, other cadets, the instructors, and themselves as women within this complex educational system. Their narratives speak of the positives and negatives in various police academies and give rise to areas of change. Thematic analysis of these conversations revealed commonalities regarding female cadets' opinions on their academy class, social groups within that class, the curriculum, instructors, and overall atmosphere. The participants felt that the academy staff treated them fairly. Most noted that the curriculum often portrayed women as victims, and rarely as officers or offenders. Social groups were created by the inherent separation through locker rooms, as the interviewees often said this was where they would speak freely and away from academy oversight. The largest concern was that all of the participants made note of the very good and very bad instructors. Examples of sexist and demeaning attitudes toward women were brought up among all six participants. They noted that it was often just a single instructor and not all male instructors. Most felt that the overall atmosphere of the academy was genuinely non-gender specific in any area. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]