blondeblackbelt

Are women still in high demand for Close Protection roles?
In your experience were there many women on your CP course?
Is there any sexism in CP work? Or is there is a problem with sexism in CP?
How did you find your CP job?

Thankyou in advance

shakespeare

There is absolutely no sexism in CP. None, not one bit...honest, cross my heart. There's plenty of dry humour though.....

blondeblackbelt

I look forward to giving as good as I get I plan on putting ''dry humour'' in my CV under list of qualities so I should fit in well.

Answers to my questions would be great Willy

shakespeare

Good answer.

It all depends on your background in todays flooded market. You must be able to offer something more than the other females already trying to get a start in the trade.

A few years ago there was plenty of demand for female operators, but this supply problem was quickly jumped upon by others looking for an opportunity to break into CP, and the market became awash with female CPs. Some have sustained themselves quite well, many have given up and moved on to other things.

If you already know a female/s within the trade who are doing well (ie not on a site job, Rst corridor watch etc, but someone who works CP with the same established clients/companies every year) who would vouch for you then I would say give it a shot. If not, I would think very carefully about trying to compete in an already flooded market.

My suggestion would be for you to open a hotmail account, create a cv with the "CP courses completed ", email all the CP's companies with the cv and cover letter and see how many "interviews" you are offered.

This will give you a very good indication of the current state of play.

Of course, there are others who own training companies who will tell you different, I just tell it as it is.

What ever you do, I wish you all the best.

Shakes

def

hi blondeblackbelt, on the CP course i did there was one woman. She was treated the same as the guys.On the fist day she did not have any flat shoes ! But then she was as good at her drills if not better than some of the guys.In fact she gave out more than she got .Also arab familys only want female cpo's to look after their women. def

blondeblackbelt

Thankyou guys - both really helpful responses.
I like to be told 'how it is', so thankyou for doing so Shakespeare

sutty

I would agree the main market is the middle east.So mainly summer work in the UK.I get to work with quite a few female cpo's(as I work full time with a family from the uae).
Their is nothing worse then a female bg turning up and starting off by saying "I'm a female and I need this,this and this".
I know who they are and that is why they are their.Sexism isn't tolerated at all in todays market so you should be pretty safe.
It also takes 2 to tango so to speak and it sometimes comes the other way.
I rely on some fantastic female operators for every 1 good operator I have probably worked with 5 crap ones.But I would say in this market for every good male their are maybe 10 that don't cut it.
The other main thing that I would like to add is that a female should act like a female and not a bloke.
I hope this helps.

celticbodyguard

BlondeB.B.

I have no experience with the UK market being flooded with female operatives as we are based in the Washington D.C. area. I know that whenever I need a female operative here, I rarely can find one in time and usually have no alternative but to talk the client into using a male. I wholeheartedly agree with Sutty and Def when they say there are opportunities for female operatives in the Middle East. As well as being operational, we also have a training school. Our classes are usually made up of all males. That will change though in Novemeber in California as we will have the female owner of a security company who has stated that she will bring a few of her female employees to training with a view to setting up an all female CP team. That will be an interesting class and I will follow their progress (I can send you her details in case you'd like to swap notes).

I put our training class information on the CPW training page last night and in it I mentioned the very fact that Def mentioned today - the training would be well suited to female attendees as many Middle Eastern Male clients want their females only protected by female agents. Of course we want students to pay to take our training, that's how schools survive, but I especially hope to see some females registering for the course as I know it is going to be a lot more difficult to try and talk an Arab male client out of using a female operative than it will be for an American client. With the kind of wealth those people have, it is especially important to give them what they want!

blondeblackbelt

Thanks for the input guys.

Celticbodyguard: Thankyou for all the information.
I'm not yet in a position to take the classes yet. I've joined the forum to scope out the industry before commiting myself. I was worried about not finding enough work due my lack of experience. Thankyou for all the information, i'd be interested in your training schools detail if you get a minute to drop me a message.
Best Wishes

Stevejones

I work with a couple of girls out here in Bas, they fit in well and can do their jobs as well as the blokes. Obviously there are men out here with less than mature attitudes towards women, strangely its the younger ones but if you've got a sense of humour and can do your job you'll be accepted ok. I was gutted that I wasn't allowed to have one as a roomy!