Sunday Star Times
February 8, 2004
Pack Mentality
by David Fisher
"I wonder how
easy she would be," a senior male police officer says to another,
referring to a female colleague.
The comment was among those collected by Prue Hyman,
a research associate in gender and women's studies at
Hyman interviewed dozens of officers and plans to discuss her report with
police headquarters, to discover if it will be put forward to the commission of
inquiry.
She believes it should be be.
Women police officers told Hyman:
* "I have found the only guys who want to mentor you will end up wanting
something different.
"The senior people within the police who sort of start the `you're a very
special person routine', and then they start visiting you at home and it goes
on from there.
"And they say, 'We don't work in the same station so therefore it's not
going to be a problem'. Personal experience, and not once,
several times. They're not junior staff, they are senior managers."
* "It's male culture and we're always considered
fortunate to be there, and that's how I felt a lot of the time. It (is) only
like that because of the pack - they all egg each other on. Split them up and
they're not like that at all."
* "On their own they can be really nice chaps but in a group situation it
is quite intimidating especially socially.
"Sometimes I don't think you can blame individuals, I think you just blame
the whole police system."
Police headquarters would not discuss the report.