March is National Women’s History Month.
The 2017 theme honors women who have successfully challenged the traditional role of women in the workplace. Andrea Umbarger, 25, Humboldt, is a local woman who has not only challenged the role of women in the paid labor force but also challenged herself to go outside her comfort level.
Umbarger is a part-time patrol officer with the Humboldt Police Department. She works six days a month while earning a radiologic technologist degree from Labette Community College. Born and raised in Chanute, she said she dreamed of having as many as 10 different professions, including everything from veterinarian to cowgirl and from detective to spy. Umbarger is a self-proclaimed tomboy.
“I’m the best of both worlds,” she said. “I love the tomboy side of things and being part of, I guess you can call it man’s world, but I love to dress up and do the girly things with my mom, too.”
Umbarger also likes to keep her options open and create as many opportunities for herself as possible. Initially, she started out pursuing a degree in graphic design from Pittsburg State University. After one semester, she transferred to Neosho County Community College to play volleyball and earned an associate degree in general studies. After that, she enrolled in Bellevue University, Nebraska.
“I took a hard deep look at myself the next summer and decided that (graphic design) wasn’t really for me,” she said. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in public and private sector investigations instead.
“It was during that time period where I really started looking into the roles of police officers, FBI, CIA, as far as what I needed to do to get to where I wanted to be at that point in time.”
Umbarger had aspirations of working on a federal level and was eager to get started.
“I wanted to go big and not start small,” she said. “I did not want to be on the streets, but I sat back and thought on it and realized I probably needed to start somewhere different.”
She moved back to Kansas and in 2014 went to work for the Neosho County Sheriff’s Department, where she experienced the cold hard truth about working in law enforcement.
Umbarger said although she loves working in law enforcement, she did not anticipate how mentally demanding the position could be.
“There are a lot of mental aspects that go along with the job,” she said. “It’s exhausting.It’s a rollercoaster (because) even when you don’t have any calls you have to be ready. You are constantly in a hyperactive state.”
Having the authority and power to make decisions that alter lives is not something that Umbarger takes lightly. Police officers often are the sole deciding factor of what takes place next in a situation. That is a very large weight to bear, she said, and can be mentally draining.
“We are so skilled in making the big life-changing decisions for other people that, when it comes to our downtime, we can’t decide on what we want to do because we are so tired of making decisions all day every day.”
That is what Umbarger enjoys about her part-time position. It enables her to earn another degree while still utilizing her previous education and her skills with minimal stress. She has not, however, ruled out working in law enforcement on a federal level some day.
Since her days at the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center, Umbarger has experienced some degree of gender stereotyping. Although the instructors at the police academy, consisting of about half women, were encouraging of the approximately seven female students, some of the 50-60 males in the class were less accepting.
“I am the type of person that doesn’t really pay attention to that type of negativity and I will blow right by them,” Umbarger said.
The females performed the same physical tests as the males, and graduating from the academy was both enlightening and empowering, she said. But once she was in the work force, that stereotyping could be found again. On calls, Umbarger finds that often times older men will ignore her while speaking only to her male counterpart.
“To them the male has all of the power and my words have little to no meaning,” she said.
On the other hand, children and women seem to be less intimidated by her than her male partners, she said.
“I think that just is a little bit of human nature,” she said.
There are people that tell her she is too pretty to be a police officer and young men that have acted like they wanted to go out on a date when she responds to emergency calls.
Although Umbarger believes women are capable of working in law enforcement, she said it is important to realize that women have a different set of skills than their male counterparts.
“As far as strength and other things, obviously your strengths are going to be different than another officer’s so, when everybody realizes that, I think it’s easier for us to work together and be more accepting of the situation,”she said.
Females should not let anyone tell them what they can and cannot do, Umbarger said. Stepping outside of their comfort zones can result in gratifying and rewarding careers. Stepping into the world of fighting crime enabled her to know herself better.
“I have always been a big fan of superheros and I think everyone can be their own superhero in their own aspect.”
The Iola Register will continue to feature women for the rest of March who are working in positions traditionally thought of as men’s roles. Anyone interested in suggesting a woman they would like to see featured should contact Shellie Smitley at [email protected] or call 620-380-6805.
