Women have served as prison and correctional officers since the early 19th century in London. The focus of research on female correctional officers has mostly been comparatively discussing the male officers' experience versus the female officer's experience. A number of studies are extensions of interviews or surveys solely of corrections staff and commonly emphasize employment opportunities and working conditions with an inclusion of legal and social obstacles, such as differing types of discrimination, that female officers face on a regular basis, in their respective field. Increased interest in the distinction of gender for workers in correctional facilities has some relevance to the shift in this occupation being predominantly male-dominated to, in some cases, being more female-dominat