Police in battle of the sexes

Chief Constable John Vine says forces must redouble their efforts

A police chief has said more needs to be done to combat sexual discrimination in the force.

Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (Acpos) president, Chief Constable John Vine said forces must "redouble" efforts to fight the problem.

The head of Tayside Police said he was "surprised and disappointed" to find out how many female officers felt affected by discrimination.

Less than 9% of senior Scottish police posts are filled by women.

Academic research

Mr Vine interviewed female officers from all eight Scottish forces as part of his human resource management degree at Abertay University in Dundee.

He found 65% of those questioned were aiming for promotion but many felt they were affected by family commitments, a lack of advice and gender discrimination.

While more than half said they rarely had access to the same career development opportunities as their male colleagues.

Mr Vine said: "The strength of feeling this research has met with sends a clear message to the Scottish Police Service that it must redouble its efforts to address gender discrimination in the workplace.

"Promotion systems must be fair and open and seen to be so and we must encourage competition for all departmental and divisional posts within the service."

"Although this is a snapshot, it is clear there are still issues around the acceptance of part-time working and gender discrimination that the service has to address."