R4 sexism in the police

[somethinginoffensive]

The man being interviewed is dismissing women police officers reported experience saying that it cannot be as bad as the 70s because there are so many more women in the police now.

Just getting so fed up with men ignoring women. If women say the culture is sexist banter and they don't feel they can speak up about it, then that needs to be looked into. Not a response of it's not that bad.

I heard Brian Piddok on R4 yesterday. An ex head of the Metropolitan police stating that it’s a public perception that the Met are Mysoginistic that women need to start telling each other of their great experiences with the police. I had to switch it off as I was so enraged!

It’s obvious that we have no chance, this country is full to the brim of women hating men, in power.

Something did the interviewer pull this man up?

It felt like she was doing her best.

The other comment that stood out was about WhatsApp messages between police officers, His response was "of course the police can't penetrate WhatsApp", so they can't monitor it.

The word penetrate was striking.

Shocking. Did you hear who it was?

A female former DCI explained it yesterday. If you complain, the next time you call for urgent help on the radio, you fear a lack of urgency on the part of the Boys' Club.

It was Ian Blair, now Lord Blair.

It starts at 12 mins to 8 with an intro about a culture where women cannot report colleagues.

So it was the follow up interview after the one yesterday.

Ian Blair is a dick.

All male dominated environments are sexist, all of them, because so many men are sexist. Its ludicrous to pretend that the police forces are an exception, its basically impossible for it to be otherwise. That said, the culture has improved massively even in the last 15 and 10 years and there has been a huge corporate shift, embracing job sharing and flexi work amongst other things.

@ComplaintsComplaintsComplaints

Ian Blair is a dick.

All male dominated environments are sexist, all of them, because so many men are sexist. Its ludicrous to pretend that the police forces are an exception, its basically impossible for it to be otherwise. That said, the culture has improved massively even in the last 15 and 10 years and there has been a huge corporate shift, embracing job sharing and flexi work amongst other things.

I don't think that is fair. My partner runs a business in a male dominated industry. It is not as you describe at all.

Well its likely your partner believes it from a senior position but it seems fairly unlikely a female junior would have the same experience as him. Or are you saying your partner has an absolutely incredible recruitment process which manages to weed out absolutely every male applicant with a shred of sexism? If so, he needs to share his trick.

I didnt hear this interview but it really contradicts what the head of Surrey police was saying yesterday. He said there is a culture of misogyny and its up to the men to challenge it and talked about a campaign led by men called something like 'not in our force'

The thing is, I've been a (female) Met police officer for 16 years and my experience is that its a brilliant place to work. The officers I supervise, colleagues and managers are polite supportive and friendly. I was strongly encouraged by (male) managers to go for promotion and was given lots of help prepping. People respect my opinion and actively seek it out. I've always felt my male colleagues had my back out on the street, and I'm in a great place re work-life balance with a flexi roster and job share. However I appreciate that in an organisation the size of the Met, my experience won't be the same as every other womans experience.

I've never worked anywhere that didn't have an underlying current of racism, sexism, misogyny, homophobia and xenophobia. Not in policy. Not on paper. Not officially but absolutely day to day on the ground. It's embedded.

@LizzieSiddal

I heard Brian Piddok on R4 yesterday. An ex head of the Metropolitan police stating that it’s a public perception that the Met are Mysoginistic that women need to start telling each other of their great experiences with the police. I had to switch it off as I was so enraged!

It’s obvious that we have no chance, this country is full to the brim of women hating men, in power.

Brian Piddick isn't he the Lib Dem peer who was arguing against single sex spaces with women on Twitter a few years ago. An arrogant patronising idiot who didn't grasp any of the issues and declared there is no problem.

That's good to hear your experience complaints. Hopefully that will become the norm.

@HummingBeeBox

I've never worked anywhere that didn't have an underlying current of racism, sexism, misogyny, homophobia and xenophobia. Not in policy. Not on paper. Not officially but absolutely day to day on the ground. It's embedded.

I think the reality is, it will never be possible to weed out all the people who are like this. What the police and other organisations can do, and should do, is have appropriate measures to deal with harassment, and actually implement those measures.

The most frustrating thing is that if and when an officer does display this type of behaviour, more often than not, they seem to be let off the hook, or even worse, the police close ranks and defend them. So there's no real consequences.

It's all well and good pointing to policies that are in place, but if nobody is willing to enforce them, they are pretty meaningless.

I've been a (female) Met police officer for 16 years and my experience is that its a brilliant place to work.

I wonder how many women haven't made it to 16 years because it wasn't a brilliant place for them to work? How many NDAs do you think there are at best vs. how many women left because of the workplace culture.

Back in the mists of time, my organisation ran a survey of women's experience. The results were so appalling that they decided against publishing it but the numbers were known at a senior level. What happened to the senior figures who were notorious for their abuse of female staff? They were all promoted.

I heard the interview with Ian Blair in the car this morning. It was gob-smacking. An organisation can have enlightened formal work-life balance policies while still having poor behaviour and a toxic work culture on the ground. The two things are quite separate, although it was clear Sir Ian had just lumped them all in to one big, amorphous ‘wimmins’ stuff’ box and decided everything is A-ok. 🙄

I made it clear I was only taking about my own personal experience.

Fwiw only one of the women I joined with has left, and that was for a very highly paying private sector post. I don't know the figures but the Met does have higher rate of attrition amongst female officers than male. I'm sure some are leaving due to unhappy experiences, I've acknowledged in a post above that I am quite certain there is sexism; its simply too big an organisation for there not to be. Ideally there wouldn't be but we live in the real world not an ideal world. And no that doesn't mean I accept it or think its ok.

Also, referring back to the original post. In the 70s female officers had an appalling time, pretty much universally. They still wore skirts, had a separate womens division. They weren't allowed to become firearms officers until the 80s and were designated WPCs with different format warrant numbers until the mid 90s.