RUNNING HEAD: WOMEN IN SECURITY

Women Security Officers:

Genre Analysis of an Interview and a Blog

Jazmin Garcia
University of Texas at El Paso

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Intro

Women are starting to become more empowered in society and are now entering into
different business sectors that are originally known to be male centered, such as security
services. Some careers are now to an extent defying gender roles and encouraging females to
further their involvement within. Women are stereotyped to be weak and incapable in many
aspects and have to daily over come the social stigma from male dominant fields. As a minority
in the fields, women have a statistical higher success rate as compared to men since they prove
themselves by working harder to get better. At times, women will go further forward and be more
properly prepared by getting more training just so they can earn the respect needed for their line
of work. Unfortunately, women are still treated and thought of as less even if their capabilities
and knowledge are equal or higher than that to a male.
By nature, women are thought of to be caring and nurturing while men on the other hand
are supposed to be protectors and provide. The fundamental block of society has taught many
these so called concepts of roles that each gender is required to play as part of a daily life. That is
why it is so difficult to take female security officers seriously. Why is it that women security
officers are constantly being treated differently if they have the same exact training as men
officers? Only about 10% of the worlds security officers are women. There are many reasons
that contribute to why the difference between ratios of men and women are so drastically
different. Although many still dont believe in gender neutrality, that glass ceiling is getting
shattered little by little.

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Audience & Purpose

The intended audience for the interview was for security officers specifically. The
interview was done to officers from two different Private Security Services companies in the El
Paso community with the purpose to gather information on the different points of view on
women security officers from both male and female perspectives. The interviews were conducted
with employees from different companies in order to compare the outcomes since the job sites
and company rules differ greatly from one another. Also to see how both genders feel about the
situation and its roots but most importantly how they think the unfair treatment can be resolved.
This genre is fairly quick to the point since everything is done verbally. It is more informative
than the blog because each person interviewed experiences or witnesses the work environment
with female security officers.
As for the blog, the intended audience isnt as specific since it is open to the general
public online in both English and Spanish; the discourse communities are bloggers. The purpose
for the blog is to inform the readers on the ongoing situations that many female security officers
face daily in their work environments. The information provided in the blog is because it
includes discourse communities statistics and dependable data, which make the information more
reliable. This genre is more time consuming since it contains information that needs to be read to
a completion in order to fully understand.

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Rhetorical Issues

The interview is brief and quick to the point and creates a feeling of comfort because it is
face to face and it does not over-load the person with stress over effects on what they say or think
on the topic since the interview was anonymous name-wise. It is more personal and direct which
makes the person feel more free to talk about their opinions. A genre that relies on visuals and
statistical facts creates a feeling of reliability to the topic, such as the blog does with women in
security. The blog influences the readers emotions much better than the interview does because it
has inputs by people with knowledge and includes citations. The blogs credibility depends on the
author and their knowledge in the situation. Aaron Spuler, the blogs author, does a great job in
backing up his credentials by giving examples of common things that not only women security
officers face daily. He did not forget to mention how hard it is to strike unbalanced ideals on the
genders that have been set by past traditions from society and he emphasized how similar and
even better at times women can do things in contrast to men.

Structure

The interview is conveyed in a simple structure of questions which makes the structure
simple and straight to the point. There was limitations to the number of questions because having
too many would make the person feel like the interview was going to take a long time. However,
the blog has the information laid out differently. It has all the information laid out organized by
paragraph with the main point bolded at the top of each section of the blog. The structure
displays professionalism. It also includes pictures which the blog as a whole more aesthetically

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pleasing to the eye of the viewer. It is straightforward since it has the main ideas bolded and in
bigger font than the rest of the text. The approach to this information is organized and
understandable to a completion.

Style and Language

The interview was semi-formally done, business casual in attire to give off a sense of
professionalism to the topic but not too much to an extent that would make the person feel
uncomfortable. The questions where formatted and structured with simplicity, a little
introduction to what the interview was going to be overall about was given before the first
question was asked. The language used in the questions was casual to give the person a feel of
comfort instead of using complex vocabulary. For example, Why do you believe that there is
such few women in the company you work for?
The blog used mostly formal grammar with a bit of informal language that makes
everything fairly easy to comprehend but at the same times gives off a reliable aspect. The white,
black, and red background colors make it aesthetically pleasing and give the blog a feeling of
credibility as it is formal. The images make the blog not be boring, the visuals are indeed what
makes the blog not too word lengthy and boring.

In conclusion, the interview and the blog both displayed the same message but in
opposite matters. For example, the interview was used in order to gain knowledge on what the
people think and feel on women security officers as to how the blog was there to give off that
information with pictures and reliable statistics. Both genres gave similar information as

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outcome although they were completely different approaches. They conveyed the same idea
though more information was collected from the blog than from the interviews. Therefore the
blog is a more effective way of gathering information on different perspectives.

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References

Spuler, A. (2013, April 24). PROS and CONS of a Women Security Officer [Blog post].
Retrieved from
The Weapon Blog: http://www.weapon-blog.com/2013/04/pros-and-cons-of-a-womansecurity-officer/
Torres, J., Diaz, B., De La Rosa, K., & Mendez, C. (2016, September 26-28). [Personal interview
by the author].