Engendering Justice - from Policy to Practice - The Fawcett Society

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Chapter Five:Justice Needs WomenWomen as Workers in the Criminal Justice SystemFigure 6 – Police Rank by Sex 195Source: Statistics on Women and the Criminal JusticeSystem, January 2009, Ministry of JusticeThe Commission had a particularly high response from I did have a successful career and what I thought [was a]women working in the police force which suggests that future in the CID until I became the mother of twins andwomen are interested in how the representation of women requested flexible working, then every corner I turned theand their work roles can be improved. The Commission doors were closed…particularly commends the British Association for Women inPolicing for their work in exposing the issues facing women Female working in the Police, Questionnaire Response,in the police. Their Gender Agenda and more recent Gender December 2008Agenda 2 set out the key challenges for the police service inmeeting the needs and utilising the skills of women. 196 Many responses received by the Commission highlightedthe difficulties experienced by single parents (the majorityFrom the responses received by the Commission it was of whom are women) with young children. One woman toldevident that good policies are now developing, in relation to the Commission:flexible working, equal opportunities and diversity. However,whether these policies are responsive in practice appears to [I am] having major difficulties with work life balance asbe too dependent on the individual manager’s interpretation am now a single mum…I am having to work shifts andand application, and evidence suggests that this differs constantly juggle childcare with friends and family. I havesubstantially from area to area. As one woman commented, approached SAWP/Federation/Command Team who“There are strong diversity and equality ops policies in all state they cannot accommodate my requirements. Aplace, but I still feel managers use these subjectively.” 197 demotion may be an option. 198Page 68Rostering often occurs at short notice which can make thearrangement of childcare difficult, particularly within thecontext of shift work or being on-call. Further, situationssuch as working overtime to process an arrest can beextremely difficult for anyone with young children.However, addressing childcare responsibilities againappears to be dependent on the approach of individual line
managers. “Sometimes childcare issues can be difficultto manage but I find this mostly depends on your linemanager, most are excellent but there are still others whohave a poor attitude to working women.” 199 Good flexibleworking practices are in place but these will only work inpractice if individual line managers respect and implementpolicies in order to maximise the contribution that womencan make to policing. All line managers must be trainedin responding to the needs of individuals with childcareobligations.The age old problem of child care doesn’t go away... shiftwork is difficult and on call responsibilities are hard. Youare off duty, so therefore no child care arranged, then thephone goes and you are expected to drop everything andattend callsFemale working in the Police, Questionnaire Response,December 2008Other women experienced problems returning to workfrom maternity leave: “Taking and coming back frommaternity leave was quite hard with little support and lackof consideration especially while pregnant. Loss of skillswhilst off was not addressed on return.” 200 It is importantto ensure that women returning from maternity leave areprovided with appropriate training and flexible workingsupport. Research should also be conducted into thefeasibility of establishing a ‘bank’ of skilled officers whocould be deployed nationally to assist in time of staffshortage, due to maternity leave or gaps due to part-timeworking .201It was also apparent in evidence presented to theCommission that there are issues surrounding how parttime/flexibleworking is perceived. Care needs to betaken that policies are understood by all workers and thatwomen without children or men do not feel disadvantaged.As one woman commented, “In fact I believe the forcehas gone so far in the opposite direction that we are soflexible, occasionally it does become a nonsense.” 202 Acommunication strategy should be developed within allpolice forces to educate staff and officers as to the reasonsfor initiatives such as flexible working. The option of flexibleworking should also be actively promoted among malestaff.As a woman who doesn’t have children, I get frustratedwhen certain women get preferential treatment becausethey have childrenFemale working in the Police, Questionnaire Response,December 2008While the GED requires the distinct needs of women andmen to be taken into account when developing staff policy,too often gender equality is interpreted as requiring thetreatment of staff as ‘genderless.’ The police force uniformprovides a very clear example of this. The Commissionwas told in evidence that rather than police uniforms beingdesigned for male and female officers, the same maledesigneduniform, based upon a 1950s military uniform, isissued for both men and women in some forces. Given thedifferent male and female body shapes, this uniform resultsin a very uncomfortable and impractical uniform for womenofficers. Within some forces, shirts are male in design andare ordered by collar size and stab vests also have noshaping which can result in discomfort for larger women.Some forces have tailors to modify uniforms to fit officers,while other officers undertake their own alterations or put upwith wearing an ill-fitting and often uncomfortable uniform.I am a woman and it needs to be recognised, becauseI have skills as a woman that a man hasn’t got and viceversa. I don’t want to be recognised as equal, I want to berecognised for what I am and we are almost going too farthe other way they have made us all PCs and you can’trecognise if it is a man or a woman coming to see youbecause they have changed our numbers.Respondent in study by Janet Astley on West MerciaConstabulary, February 2007The Commission is concerned at the changes whichhave been made to the selection process for promotionto Sergeant. Instead of a written exam, an area in whichwomen have excelled, there is now a work basedassessment. Promotion based on workplace assessmentis likely to disadvantage part-time workers who spendless time in the workplace. The need to spend time awayfrom home to attend courses necessary for promotion willalso disadvantage individuals with children or other caringresponsibilities. As one woman commented:Page 69
Page 1 and 2:
Engendering Justice- from Policy to
Page 3 and 4:
ContentsForeword 5Executive Summary
Page 5 and 6:
ForewordFor the past five years, Fa
Page 7 and 8:
Executive SummarySince 2003, Fawcet
Page 10 and 11:
Executive Summary continuedon domes
Page 12 and 13:
Executive Summary continuedFemale O
Page 14 and 15:
Chapter One: Continued.Methodology
Page 16 and 17:
The Five Years of the CommissionCom
Page 18 and 19: Chapter Two:Introduction - From Pol
Page 20 and 21: Chapter Three:Women and Justice - M
Page 23 and 24: [A woman] had admitted to an offenc
Page 25 and 26: Figure 3: Female Reoffending Rate b
Page 27 and 28: writing the Government had undertak
Page 29 and 30: equirement could be used to refer w
Page 31 and 32: given current funding allocations a
Page 33 and 34: I feel that women with severe menta
Page 35 and 36: Good Practice Example: Birth Compan
Page 37 and 38: Female offenders serving indetermin
Page 39 and 40: The Commission recommends that if p
Page 41 and 42: Moving TowardsCommunity ProvisionTh
Page 43 and 44: which can be developed in conjuncti
Page 45 and 46: Chapter Four:Women Need Justice - W
Page 47 and 48: that VAW is a relevant issue for ev
Page 49 and 50: Women also need to have clear infor
Page 51 and 52: Victims reported telling their stor
Page 53 and 54: However, Rights of Women told the C
Page 55 and 56: in the decision-making process is l
Page 57 and 58: continued commitment to joint worki
Page 59 and 60: It is also important for the CPS to
Page 61 and 62: He pleaded innocent, so I prepared
Page 63 and 64: isk assessments are not uniform. In
Page 65 and 66: espect and sexual violence is a com
Page 67: different needs and experiences of
Page 71 and 72: local area, with women who have rea
Page 73 and 74: her career, as these women may find
Page 75 and 76: The key issue in my view is that th
Page 77 and 78: Some magistrates noted that they fe
Page 79 and 80: for women to access development opp
Page 81 and 82: Organisations sharing their views w
Page 83 and 84: Institutional change needed:➤ A c
Page 85 and 86: International example of good pract
Page 87 and 88: ➤ The Criminal JusticeSystem will
Page 89 and 90: Key targets / indicators of success
Page 91 and 92: ➤ Women working inthe criminal ju
Page 93 and 94: Key targets / indicators of success
Page 95 and 96: ➤ Policy and practiceof all crimi
Page 97 and 98: ➤The Judiciary and thesenior leve
Page 99 and 100: Appendix ACOMMISSIONERS:Baroness Je
Page 101 and 102: Annexure BSummary of Recommendation
Page 103 and 104: not be means tested.• First night
Page 105 and 106: in circumstances where the Prosecut
Page 107 and 108: • Allocation to a particular cour
Page 109 and 110: EndnotesMarch 200985Questionnaire R
Page 111: About FawcettThe Fawcett Society is
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