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Non-commissioned officers in the French Gendarmerie are obliged to move geographically at recruitment and throughout their careers. This paper explores what this spatial mobility means in terms of professional socialization, particularly gender socialization, given the heavily male ethos characteristic of their profession. Women (who are in a minority) are expected to conform to “virilization”, as are men, since masculinities are plural. The men and women most attached to this virilization are those whose lifestyles are closest to the working classes, from which most of them are drawn. Non-commissioned officers use spatial mobility to achieve this gender mobility, because it helps them to distance themselves from their origins. But spatial mobility also produces gender inequality, mainly because it is essential to career advancement.