1 Women in the police and police culture
It is indisputable that the current gender balance within policing does not match that of the broader population (which is 51 per cent female and 49 per cent male HP: in the UK?). In this sense, policing is not fully ‘representative’ of the general populace. The Metropolitan Police Service, for example, is 71 per cent male and ‘as such, the Met does not look like the majority of Londoners’ (Casey, 2023, p. 9).
While some progress had been made, if recruitment in London were to continue on its current trajectory, it would take until 2053 to reach a gender balance within the force.
A similar picture can be seen across forces nationally, as the activity below demonstrates.
Activity 1 The gender balance in policing
Consider the figure below, which shows the percentage of male and female police officers at different ranks within police forces in England and Wales.
What do you notice about the proportions, and how does this change according to seniority?
Figure 2 Distribution by gender across police ranks in England and Wales in 2023 Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/382525/share-of-police-officers-in-england-and-wales-gender-rank/#:~:text=Higher%20up%20in%20the%20police,30%20percent%20female%20Chief%20Officers.
Discussion
Figure 2 shows that there is a significant gender imbalance at all ranks within policing, varying slightly between a low of 27 per cent female at Sergeant rank up to 36.8 per cent at constable. The percentage of constables who are women is low, but the percentage for higher ranks is even lower, indicating that women are less likely to be promoted than men. The disproportion is the lowest at middle ranks, particularly the important operational ranks of Sergeant and Inspector. While this picture represents progress of sorts (it was only in 1995 that Pauline Clare was appointed as the first female Chief Constable – for Lancashire Constabulary) it clearly shows the issues which beset policing around gender equality.
A gender imbalance in the police workforce means members of the public are less likely to believe that the police are reflective of society as a whole. But this is by no means the only problem – a continuing gender imbalance in any organisation has the potential to allow sexist behaviours to persist. There have been numerous investigations which have concluded that this is the case within many police forces.
For example, between 2016 and 2018, fourteen officers working at Charing Cross Police Station in London were investigated over allegations around bullying and sexual harassment of other police officers, as well as engaging in conversations that were racist, misogynistic and homophobic. During a 2022 Inquiry, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) found:
… evidence of a culture of ‘toxic masculinity’, sexual harassment and misogyny with teams dominated by ‘macho’ officers using discriminatory, misogynistic and offensive language.
If a female officer raised this as an issue they were told they should ‘play the game, or stay quiet, or leave’.
Such behaviours have been exposed in forces other than the Metropolitan Police. In Scotland, for example, a 2023 report commissioned by Police Scotland found:
… pervasive attitudes of misogyny and sexism across all areas and divisions of Police Scotland’, ‘ongoing discrimination [...] and [...] exclusion of women from promotional opportunities’ and ‘hostility to women who achieve promotions’.
Thus, police forces face considerable challenges in the recruitment and integration of women into policing, and sexism and misogyny are proving hard to eradicate in police culture. It seems likely that these factors are linked to, or at least influence, the treatment of female members of the public by the police in relation to crime.