Police force launches bid to tackle ‘culture of mysogyny’

The
Metropolitan Police has launched the UK’s biggest internal initiative to
explore issues affecting 1,000 of its female staff.

‘Dancing
on the Glass Ceiling’ is the title of a series of four events for female
employees, including police officers, police staff and traffic wardens.

Each
event will be attended by 250 women who work for the Metropolitan Police
Service (MPS) and the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) from a variety of
ranks and grades, locations, roles and ages of service. These 1,000 attendees
represent 1 in 14 of the women who work for the force.

Ian
Blair, the force’s deputy commissioner, has admitted that while there were
“pockets of excellence” in promoting flexible working for women, there were
also “pockets of what is tantamount to misogyny”.

He
made the comments to the Morris Inquiry into professional standards and
employment matters at the Met.

The
main aims of the four seminars are to:

·
Celebrate the value that women bring to the MPS and the contribution they make
to working for a safer London

·
Address the concern that there are women in the MPS who feel undervalued and
even sometimes devalued and marginalised

·
Uncover the difficulties faced by women working in the MPS

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·
Resolve what more needs to be done to improve the MPS and MPA working
environment for all women.

By Michael Millar