Engendering Justice - from Policy to Practice - The Fawcett Society

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