UK Policing Releases Their Fifth Annual HeForShe Gender Equality In UK Policing Report

The latest report highlighting the progress all UK police forces are making towards gender equality has been launched.

The fifth annual Gender Equality in UK Policing Report once again comes in support of the United Nations’ gender equality campaign, HeForShe.

The international movement, supported by more than two million people worldwide including world leaders, heads of state and global CEOs and celebrities, seeks to engage men and people of all genders to join women to work together to achieve true gender equality and a more equal world.

Every police force in the UK has signed up to the initiative, with a pledge to improve gender imbalances that exist at middle management levels within policing and to address and remove the sexism and misogyny, where it exists, in police culture. 

This year’s report focuses on the theme of being ‘respectfully disruptive’, as discussed at the UN Women’s HeForShe Summit held in New York in September 2023.

As HeForShe advocates, this is an important message to take forward: we have a duty to be proactive and ‘respectfully disruptive’ when seeking to address gender inequalities within policing.

This year’s data shows steady progress across all areas; the overall number of women officers has increased from 32% to 35%, women officers in middle management teams have increased from 25% to 27% and women officers in senior leadership teams have increased from 29% to 30%.

The report also highlights several ways forces are progressing work in addressing and removing sexism and misogyny, where it exists, in police culture through workshops, listening circles and comms campaigns.

South Wales Police Chief Constable Jeremy Vaughan, the UK Policing Lead for HeForShe, said:

“The strength of the HeForShe network and the routine sharing of good practice is regularly praised and I am proud to have been a part of this over this last year. I will continue to champion HeForShe, particularly at Chief Officer level, and promote the good work that you are doing. You are not alone in this difficult task.  This year, we were also pleased to welcome Guernsey Police to our growing HeForShe network and they feature for the first time in the report.

“Over the last year, the UN have focused on the theme of being ‘respectfully disruptive’ about how we challenge those practices, our culture, anything which disadvantages someone due to their gender. It is not about just recognising the barriers in place within our organisations but doing something about it. Doing it respectfully means working together to remove gender inequalities and making our workplace better for everyone.

“This report shows progress, but it shows that progress is slow and steady. We know that change will take a long time, but it takes me back to being ‘respectfully disruptive’, and whether if we were all more ‘respectfully disruptive’ whether we could accelerate change?”

Download the HeForShe Gender Equality in UK Policing Report 2023 here >