The prevalence of female members of staff in the security industry has varied greatly over the years. I have spoken to many that were working before the SIA had their standard license introduced and those working post the introduction. Their stories of how they were received as a door supervisor and what the connected expectations were, are as varied as the personalities performing this ever-increasing important role.
Personally, I was brought up to believe that Job roles and the functionality within them, are based solely on the person’s ability to perform the given tasks associated with it. This in my mind would never come down to the gender of the applicant, in as much as it also would not be based on age, sexual orientation and race. There are however some caveats to these points, especially when looking at Door supervision. You may look to have a language represented at a venue, or an understanding of a particular culture and its values. With these points in mind then, it was a surprise for me to find that some women are still having issues when working as door supervisors, from both the general public and also colleagues. I decided that I would have a delve into this issue and build some opinion on its cause and effect.
The general perception from the public it would seem is far behind where the industry believes it is, this is proven with the surprised reaction that greets a hospitable door supervisor when opening a door, or giving a warm greeting on entry to a venue, the comments of “the most polite doorman I’ve met in years” or “you’re a really nice person”. These statements (although nice to hear) go in some way to show that the image of the “bouncer” really does need some polishing still, to a large proportion of the night time economies people, we are still viewed as the angry big guy that will throw you out from a venue when misbehaving. This outdated view is a little saddening, at Radius we have been investing in the training and hospitality element of our staff at every opportunity. There is talk in some circles that this point is now “done to death” however, this thought is obviously not shared by some proportion of the public and needs further work, reversing years of opinions and experiences clearly takes more time and effort.
