‘POLICING REFORM: CONSEQUENCES FOR
THE GENDER AGENDA AND THE FEMALE
POLICE WORKFORCE’
21 October 2014 New Scotland Yard
Dr Wendy Laverick
Liz Cain
Senior Lecturer in Criminology
w.laverick@mmu.ac.uk
Senior Lecturer in Sociology
l.cain@mmu.ac.uk
How times have changed…
We don’t get called Plonks anymore.
Female Officer
Yes it has changed, I remember applying years ago for the crime squad and
three girls applied for it and they said you know only one of you is going to
get it and it was like yeah, ok, it was like accepted
Female Officer
I think the [force] definitely recognise women and have come on because I
remember questions in my interview, ‘so when you have your period are you
able to carry on normally or are you going to have to’, they put that in the
application form.
Female Officer
Methodology
MMU and BAWP
250 + Participants
14 Forces across the UK
Questionnaires and Interviews
Gender Agenda 2
1
For the Police Service to demonstrate consistently that it
values women in policing.
2
To achieve a gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation balance
across the rank and role structure and specialisms.
3
To have a woman’s voice in influential policy forums focusing
on both internal and external service delivery.
4
To develop an understanding of the competing demands in
achieving a work/life balance and a successful career.
5
To have a working environment and equipment of the right quality
and standards to enable women to do their jobs professionally.
Encouraging Signs
…over the last twelve months, a lot more interest [is] heading towards us. A
lot more inquiries and people talking to us and more people starting to join
us actively, wanting to get involved, wanting to do things and I think that is
because there is now a recognition things aren’t that rosy, we thought
things were great because the force has done this, that and the other, we
don’t need the network anymore, everything is fine for women, but now,
with things starting to bite and things starting to slip they are starting to
realise actually we need the network.
Female Representative Police Staff Support Organisation Coordinator
Gender is not a barrier…
Most female constables in this force don’t think there is a problem with
being female, they feel that they have got equality and everything is fine
until they start looking for promotion or start a family and then suddenly
they start feeling these hurdles around
Female Officer
Training
Personal Development
Fitness
Progression
Complex Life Patterns
Being a working parent , particularly when you have strived to have a
career, keeping that career when you are a working parent provides you
with no end of conundrums, personally, professionally, everything else, you
do have to, I don’t know how you feel but you do have to keep swimming
with the tide because the minute you dip out of that, everything I feel, all
the degrees I’ve done, the work, the professional qualifications I have done,
working my way up, does feel and I have reached the points where I felt like
that is a total waste of the last, how old am I now, fifteen years, it has felt
like a waste of the last fifteen years of my life and you do end up with
thinking, how does having a child make me feel that way?
Female Part Time Officer
Representativeness
Caution
Complexity
Under-representation
Force variation
Police staff reductions
Changes to recruitment and progression
Changes to shift pattern arrangements
Changes to fitness test requirements
Training and Development
I still think they have got a long way to go with training, they are still doing
the residential courses, a friend of mine has just gone on mounted section
and he has had to go away for sixteen weeks, well you can imagine that if
you were a female with young children that would just be virtually
impossible and to be honest for him it has been virtually impossible, sixteen
weeks away, and another person, the five day intelligence course, that has
created an issue because it is so far away from his house and again it is just,
it is still four nights away from home
Male Officer
Centralisation
Less flexibility
Less advance notice
Reduced training
Reduced development
Financial support
Line Manager Training, Development and Support
I think there should be mentoring if you are going into a senior
management role, um, I took mine on eighteen months ago now, when I got
the job that was it, you carry on and just do what you have got to do and
figure it out for yourself, um and I sit here and question myself ninety
percent of the day, have I got that right?
Female Officer
It is not only the implementation it is also the awareness of it, many of the
supervisors are not even aware of some of these policies exist
Female Officer
Supporting the Welfare Needs of Women
Flexible and
Part-Time
Working
Maternity
Issues
Surrogacy
and
Adoption
Older Police
Workforce
Mixed
Teams
Dual Police
Families
Sickness
Older Female Workforce
We are going to have to work longer but what we don’t want is to be
shoved in the corner and said just do what you can, we still want to
contribute, we have still got something to offer, possibly not what we did
fifteen, twenty years ago, but we have still got a lot to offer the force, we
have time, experience, knowledge that you only get with twenty, thirty
years and perhaps they might be overlooking that, missing those
opportunities for the older worker
Female Officer
Financial Hardship
The indications are that police officers and police officer’s families are
financially struggling in terms of being able to live on the amount of money
that they have because the police officer’s salary is obviously diminishing
and allowances are diminishing
Female Equality & Diversity Practitioner
Continuing negative perception of PT / FW
All flexible working plans for officers have been reviewed & flexible working
has moved backwards to the extent that officers with seven years paid
service are just going, because they can’t get flexible working agreed
Female Officer
Reduce Bureaucracy
Access to HR
Senior Support
Weakening of equality and diversity infrastructure
Women in Policing Steering Group
Further cuts
National
Representative
Police Support
Associations
Force Level
Diversity
Units
Dedicated
Equality and
Diversity
Resources
Diminished Capacity and remits
Reduced services
Police And Crime Commissioner Commitment
Adequacy of Monitoring and Accountability Structures
Support
Networks
Commitment
From what I have read, what I would say is that diversity, inclusion and
equality doesn’t seem to be high up their [UK Government] agenda
Female Equality and Diversity Practitioner, Police Staff
I believe the current government has not really shown leadership on
Equality and Diversity matters…I am not aware [of] a single piece of
work/strategy/initiative by the Home Office which shows a real
commitment
National Representative Staff Support Organisation
Thank-you
To access the full report visit BAWP website:
www.bawp.org