In a move that’s loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooog overdue, the Australian Federal Police has finally put in place measures to address the srs lack of women within its ranks.
AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin has revealed aggressive targets to address the gender gap, with an end-game of lifting the proportion of female officers to 50 per cent over the next 10 years.
Announcing the ‘gender targets’ in his keynote speech ‘An Adaptive and Innovative AFP’ at an Australian Strategic Policy Institute event last night, he also revealed some pretty grim stats.
As things currently stand:
- 35 per cent of all AFP staff are women.
- Fewer than 20 per cent of uniformed staff are women (that’s less than 1 in 5).
- 15 of 84 senior leaders are women.
Speaking to the ABC this morning, Commissioner Colvin said the current shitty imbalance is “not just surprising, it’s disappointing.”
All but confirming what we all know to be true, he also hinted that the targets – which include raising the female uniformed staff to 35 per cent in 5 years – would likely be met with some resistance from some members of the current bro-heavy force.
“This will be uncomfortable at times, but it’s important work. Real reform, real change is uncomfortable.”
Got it in one, m8.
Source: ABC.
Photo: Getty / Paula Bronstein.
