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    Policewomen are underrepresented on the ground

    Policewomen occupy two-thirds of administrative or logistics positions but are underrepresented on ground operations and on decision-making positions. Credit: © Belga

    Female members of police units in Belgium are underrepresented in ground operations and decision-making positions, even though they occupy up to two-thirds of administrative and logistics positions, an analysis shows.

    Around 30% of the 50,000 local and federal police officers are women, in what roughly amounts to 15,000 female officers in total, according to Le Soir.

    Although women make up for around 33.5% and 27.5% of local and federal police units, respectively, female officers are most often found in administrative and logistics positions.

    For every 172 men in police patrols, there are only 11 women.

    “A good number of women are interested in joining active patrols, but some are put off by certain aspects of it and end up working in logistics or administration,” Vincent Gilles, head of the SLFP police union told Le Soir.

    Gilles also points out the existence of a “glass ceiling” within the police, as numbers show that a rising number of women are passing the necessary qualifications to land a role as a commissioner, but remain less well-represented in that position in comparison to their male counterparts.

    The Brussels Times