Citing an urgent need to address gender-based harassment, discrimination and bullying, a group of current and former police officers has established a national advocacy group to support female cops in a workplace where they say women are too often treated as outsiders.The National Women in Law Enforcement Association will represent a growing group of women officers alleging discrimination and harassment on the job — and who believe there is little recourse, according to organizers.“Women in policing, they’re in distress right now,” says Waterloo police Const. Angelina Rivers, who is part of a proposed class-action lawsuit against the Waterloo police board and its union alleging gender-based bullying, misconduct and more.“Women are leaving policing in droves, and there’s a reason for that,” she says.Recent research examining the experience of female officers in Canada has raised concerns about the persistence of an “old boys” club’ within policing, even as more women sign onto the force.In her study of female police officers in Ontario, Lesley Bikos, a former London, Ont. officer now pursuing her PhD studying police culture at Western University, found officers regularly subjected to verbal harassment — including being called “badge bunny” or a “tomboy” — and having to withstand hearing sexist jokes. Women officers also had to work harder to earn the respect automatically granted to their male counterparts and hesitated calling for backup out of fear of being called weak, Bikos found.Officers who become mothers, meanwhile, face another set of challenges, including being passed over for promotions because of a perception they won’t be as dedicated, according to research out of Wilfrid Laurier University.The new women’s policing advocacy group seeks to be both a support network for female police officers and group lobbying for change at the municipal, provin ...
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