International Women's Day

8 March 2015

On International Women’s Day, the Diversity Cell published the results of the “women and police” survey conducted in September 2014 by the JUMP company together with the Institute for the Equality of Women and Men and the Task Force Gender of the Federal Police. The aim of this survey was to find out how women feel about and experience working for the police in order to identify the barriers to the development of their career and, on this basis, determine the priority actions necessary to ensure stronger gender equality in the police force. The survey shows that female police officers feel that working for the police is a good career choice for them and that they offer real added value. They have ambition and are in demand for further training. However they wish the percentage of women in management positions and senior ranks would be greater. They also feel that they have to prove themselves more than men and that they do not enjoy the same level of trust as them. Furthermore, quite a few of them say that their male colleagues or managers display sexist behaviour towards them. So it seems that effort is required to further improve the development of women’s career in the police. Particular emphasis should be placed on the stages of women’s personal and family life in our society.