Above, Sergeant Sarah Stirling is chairperson of the Association's Police College Committee.

The group met in Wellington on May 9 to begin development of a strategy to encourage and support women to put themselves forward for office-holder, delegate or director positions.

The status quo, according to President Chris Cahill, is an indictment on an organisation where women account for 21 per cent of police officers and 69 per cent of Police employees.

He believes the credibility and relevancy of the Association are threatened if all members do not have a clear voice through representation.

The President’s message opened the workshop, but he was clear about his role in the day – champion the initiative and let the workshop delegates get on with the job.

“It is certainly not for me to suggest how you go about this. Just know you have my support and commitment to a major task ahead,” he said.

Hours of brainstorming produced a wealth of material, guided by external facilitator Gretchen Young (whose expertise is in women in governance and leadership and management coaching) and Association senior industrial officer Amanda Craig, who runs the Association’s rep training.

It was relatively straightforward identifying the many facets of the problem: little or no representation; unconscious bias; women not encouraged or supported to stand; office-holder positions seen as “jobs for life”; lack of development opportunities; male successors being “pre-chosen”; lack of knowledge of the process; and personal cost in time and dollars.

Solutions proposed included encouragement of women to stand, leadership training, allocation of resources, exposure to roles, shadowing, training board members on how to develop women through the elected ranks and identifying champions for change – both male and female.

Guest speaker Human Rights Commissioner Jackie Blue suggested that including tenure and quotas could be “game changers” to the existing state of affairs. “Affirmative action is needed because unless women are intentionally included, the system will unintentionally exclude them,” she said.

She praised Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who two years ago selected a gender-balanced cabinet.

Dr Blue said research backed a link between diversity in the workforce and business success. “Organisations or businesses cannot get ahead by leaving behind half our population. I don’t care that New Zealand Police is a public-sector organisation. The Police Minister is also the Minister for Women and she will back you,” Dr Blue promised, adding, “It’s time to get out and march!”

Among the Association’s stated values are an acknowledgment of the diversity of membership and encouragement of democratic participation. Yet, as Senior Sergeant Marcia Murray told the Association’s Conference last year, “the informal approach of encouraging people to stand as delegates and office holders does not appear to be having a visible effect on the gender diversity within the organisation’s decision makers”.

Thanks to the motivated and competent women who took part in the workshop, the process of change is in motion and a strategy to progress from “problem” to “solution” is being developed.

The group met in Wellington on May 9 to begin development of a strategy to encourage and support women to put themselves forward for office-holder, delegate or director positions.

The status quo, according to President Chris Cahill, is an indictment on an organisation where women account for 21 per cent of police officers and 69 per cent of Police employees.

He believes the credibility and relevancy of the Association are threatened if all members do not have a clear voice through representation.

The President’s message opened the workshop, but he was clear about his role in the day – champion the initiative and let the workshop delegates get on with the job.

“It is certainly not for me to suggest how you go about this. Just know you have my support and commitment to a major task ahead,” he said.

Hours of brainstorming produced a wealth of material, guided by external facilitator Gretchen Young (whose expertise is in women in governance and leadership and management coaching) and Association senior industrial officer Amanda Craig, who runs the Association’s rep training.

It was relatively straightforward identifying the many facets of the problem: little or no representation; unconscious bias; women not encouraged or supported to stand; office-holder positions seen as “jobs for life”; lack of development opportunities; male successors being “pre-chosen”; lack of knowledge of the process; and personal cost in time and dollars.

Solutions proposed included encouragement of women to stand, leadership training, allocation of resources, exposure to roles, shadowing, training board members on how to develop women through the elected ranks and identifying champions for change – both male and female.

Guest speaker Human Rights Commissioner Jackie Blue suggested that including tenure and quotas could be “game changers” to the existing state of affairs. “Affirmative action is needed because unless women are intentionally included, the system will unintentionally exclude them,” she said.

She praised Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who two years ago selected a gender-balanced cabinet.

Dr Blue said research backed a link between diversity in the workforce and business success. “Organisations or businesses cannot get ahead by leaving behind half our population. I don’t care that New Zealand Police is a public-sector organisation. The Police Minister is also the Minister for Women and she will back you,” Dr Blue promised, adding, “It’s time to get out and march!”

Among the Association’s stated values are an acknowledgment of the diversity of membership and encouragement of democratic participation. Yet, as Senior Sergeant Marcia Murray told the Association’s Conference last year, “the informal approach of encouraging people to stand as delegates and office holders does not appear to be having a visible effect on the gender diversity within the organisation’s decision makers”.

Thanks to the motivated and competent women who took part in the workshop, the process of change is in motion and a strategy to progress from “problem” to “solution” is being developed.

"This is where I want to be"

Sergeant Sarah Stirling, pictured above, had a “light-bulb moment” last year when she was asked to be an observer at the Police Association’s annual Conference.

“I thought, ‘This is where I want to be’. I loved the atmosphere and all the speakers, but I was surprised at how few women there were in the room,” she recalls.

At the time, Sarah was vice-chairperson of the Police College Association Committee. Eight months on from the Conference, and still feeling inspired, she has taken further steps towards greater involvement.

She was recently elected chairperson of the committee and last month she took part in an Association-led workshop to encourage diversity on the Association’s board and in other leadership positions.

The workshop was attended by invited female Police staff from throughout the country. “It was refreshing to be in a room with highly motivated, intelligent, engaging women with a strong sense of purpose,” Sarah says.

After 35 years in Police, and as a graduate of the first Police wing to have more women than men (Wing 82, 51 per cent female), she’s determined to keep flying the flag for her sex. “For women in Police, there is still so much further to go,” she says.

She points out the paradox of Police spending thousands of dollars training women “and then not seeking to retain them, particularly when they come back from maternity leave”.

“Let’s think outside the square and tailor jobs for the skill sets we have, instead of saying there is nothing for women, and then we lose them. There are options, especially for FEOs, in areas connected to the frontline – for example, interviewing witnesses, doing area inquiries for burglaries or road crash inquiries and delivering training.”

Sarah, a teaching and learning adviser at the Police College, says she had always wanted to be a police officer, “from the age of eight, when I was told I couldn’t be a ‘fireman’.”

She realised her ambition in 1982 and was posted to Wellington Central.

Last year, in a Police Museum Facebook post for International Women’s Day, Sarah reflected on her start in Police: “On graduation, I naively thought I was an equal and would be treated the same way as my male colleagues. When I joined there were approximately 300 policewomen scattered throughout New Zealand and 5000 men. We were a minority and called WDs. It meant Women’s Division. Where I worked it was used as a derogatory term – you were a lesser person because of your gender. I had to be escorted by a male colleague on late shift and nightshift while walking the beat. I had to wear different headwear to my male colleagues; this included a white and navy hat for daytime shifts and a dark navy blue felt hat to be worn at night-time. I had to ask for trousers to be made for me as the skirt I was issued with stopped me from doing the job I wanted to do.”

It wasn’t until she joined team policing in Wellington, and was the only woman in the unit, that she finally felt accepted and valued, and had equal treatment: “Same uniform, same job – no allowances made – and we worked on the best jobs!”

She has since worked on section, in community policing, comms, as an inquiry cop and a recruit instructor and trainer.

She became a sergeant in 1995. “I love being a sergeant. It’s one of the most influential positions in police in terms of the frontline and day-to-day policing. And you can help staff achieve their career ambitions.

“I’ve often been asked why I haven’t gone any higher in Police and I have responded that you can only have so many chiefs.”

Although she wants more diversity, she is not so keen on quotas or percentages for women. “If the best person for the job is a woman, that’s fantastic, but if women are appointed to fill a quota, there’s always uncertainty for them around why they might have got the job.”

Instead, she would like to see greater support and mentoring for women who may be interested in the more traditionally male-dominated areas such as AOS, protection services, tactical options training, police support units or being a dog handler or joining the dive squad.

Women who are interested in such roles should “give it a go”, she says. “Often, women, across all professions, wait until they think they have all the skills required for a role. Men don’t wait – they’ll go for a role when they think they have some of the skills for a job.”

Women also need male champions, she says. “People like Association President Chris Cahill, people who are motivated to push us to apply for promotions and new positions and who can support and advise us on how to move into those roles.”

In terms of Association involvement, she suggests getting more female observers at the Conference or at board meetings. “There is strength in numbers. If more women are involved in the committees nationally, we can share more knowledge and learn more.”

Leading by example

Carol Kitson, pictured, Police area executive officer for Tairawhiti, based in Gisborne, has a lively inquiring mind that can cut to the core of problems pretty quickly.

With advanced skills in strategic intelligence – 24 years with the army and the past 13 with Police – she’s a handy person to have in your corner when something needs doing.

That’s what the Association’s Tairawhiti Committee members thought too when they suggested she put her name forward for the role of chairperson.

She was elected to that role in 2015 and in April this year she was also elected as Region 4 deputy director, making her one of only two female Association deputy directors (Senior Sergeant Marcia Murray in Region 2 is the other).

As a non-sworn member, Carol is delighted to have taken on the position, but stresses that she is there to take a balanced approach on behalf of all members. “All staff need a strong voice at the committee level and I was asked by sworn members to stand,” she says.

It’s in her nature to take on leadership roles and that has been an integral part of her career, which began in the late 1970s when she joined the New Zealand Army.

“I joined when integrated (male/female) initial training courses were relatively new, and the standards for passing were applied equally across the genders”. After training, she found her niche in communications and electronic warfare.

She took a break to have her three children and when she returned she slotted into the intelligence corps, eventually becoming a senior intelligence operator working with Special Forces.

When she left the army in 2003 with the idea that she and her husband might move to the country for a change of lifestyle, she was shoulder-tapped by Police Commissioner Howard Broad to develop a new role of strategic intelligence group manager for Auckland City District.

During her time in Auckland she established a district intelligence capability, developing then implementing the first antiterrorism strategy and action plan, deploying to Timor Leste as the strategic intelligence advisor to New Zealand Police, then as the United Nations-appointed director of the Strategic Intelligence Department UNMIT (UN Mission in Timor Leste).

When she returned to New Zealand in 2007, she worked at PNHQ for a year as part of the initial National Intelligence Implementation Project. In 2011, she was part of the wider Auckland operational planning team for the Rugby World Cup, managing and directing the intelligence collection function.

Later that year, she and her husband moved to Gisborne to care for her mother who had become ill with Alzheimer’s, and Carol became the Tairawhiti area intelligence supervisor.

That position was disestablished in 2014 when district intelligence roles were centralised. Carol switched to her current AEO role, which, although not as academically challenging as she’s used to, she loves for its “multi-faceted supportive nature”. As a self-confessed “control freak”, she also took on chairing the Health and Safety Committee, the Women’s Advisory Network (since handed over to a colleague) and became the area’s diversity representative.

Carol’s desire to be more active in the Association was sparked in 2014 when many staff, including herself, were affected by restructuring. As chairperson, she continues to lobby Police to improve the working conditions of rural officers, including addressing the state of many Police houses “in dire need of repairs”.

Last year the Tairawhiti committee successfully lobbied a motion through the annual Conference calling for research into a safe staffing model. Eastern District, like many others, was suffering the negative impacts of staffing shortages, including a rise in welfare engagement, Carol says.

She is keen for the Association to take the lead in pushing for a mandatory safe staffing model that “insulates itself from the financial whims of successive governments”.

Getting more women involved in the Association is on her mind, too. “Every single day, I see highly capable and professional women in our districts, but some lack confidence and baulk at leadership roles. I know from first-hand experience that with appropriate training and reinforcement of that training comes confidence.

“Things change when you have credible, professional women who can lead withconfidence, and it is those qualities that other women will aspire too.”