Abstract
In regard to the United Nations’ (UN) framework for promoting gender equality in policing, including women in national police forces remains a global challenge. Even countries possessing a stable history of women’s involvement reveal that women are significantly under-represented in policing when compared to other professions—even though prior research has strongly suggested that women are important actors in establishing post-conflict democratic order. This article outlines the political, social and institutional challenges that are faced to achieve significant gender representation in national police forces. It also recommends countering these challenges by using a ‘women-oriented’ approach. Such an approach does not merely fulfil the aspirational UN goals of achieving greater gender balance, it also yields many practical advantages for improving policing, including 1) leveraging the unique skills that women offer in policing, 2) making better use of force decisions, 3) combatting police corruption and 4) increasing the gender responsiveness of police. Finally, several operational strategies for promoting more women into policing are suggested.
Highlights
Conflict harms many groups and individuals, and in societies emerging from large-scale conflict, women are a abused, exploited and displaced group
What role can increasing women’s involvement in policing play in building better police agencies? This was the main question explored at a side event of the 63rd session of the Commission of the Status of Women (CSW)1 proceedings held in March 2019, which centred on the greater theme of building social protection systems for women and girls
As the CSW has expressed in certain policy documents, the wellbeing of women and girls is threatened by rising inequalities and persistent rates of poverty, austerity measures, a lack of living wages for work or a lack of work, political conflicts, climate change, environmental degradation and the effects of voluntary and involuntary migration (UN Women 2019: paras 6–8, 18)
Summary
Conflict harms many groups and individuals, and in societies emerging from large-scale conflict, women are a abused, exploited and displaced group. Other SDGs that can be linked to women’s social protection systems are those that address safety and access to justice, such as goal 11 (‘make cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable’) and 16 (provide ‘access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels’) (United Nations n.d.) In addition to these various SDGs, UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) stated that peace cannot be achieved between and among nations post-conflict, without the participation of women at all levels. This article explores the importance of including women in any project of post-conflict democratisation and outlines the challenges that achieving significant gender representation in national police forces faces This is true for women in security sector positions such as policing; they should be considered a cornerstone of restoring democracy and order after conflict. Production of safety, with gender diversity being a cornerstone of those approaches (Carlson 2017)
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