Livingstone to accuse Yard of institutional sexism

Scotland Yard is guilty of institutionalised sexism and having a "covert macho culture", the Mayor of London will say today.

Ken Livingstone will accuse Britain's biggest police force of stereotyping female officers and failing to give them the same chances of promotion.

The Mayor believes that, despite big improvements in the way the Metropolitan Police treats women, it still has much work to do. He thinks that a sexist approach and "canteen culture" is part of the reason that fewer than one in six Met officers are female and only four of the 40 most senior officers are women.

Speaking at "Gender Agenda – Empowering Women in the Metropolitan Police Service", a police conference in London today, Mr Livingstone will say: "Institutionalised sexism must be tackled with the same robustness as racism and homophobia. I am pleased the force is recognising that there are problems and that they are prepared to address them.

"If women make up more than half of London's population, the police must not only be able to represent them, but its officers must also more accurately reflect those figures.

"We need to end the canteen culture that exists, but we also need to ensure they have the same opportunities for promotion as men. Women don't want to be pigeon-holed and limited to certain types of police activity, such as domestic disputes. They also want to work on murder cases, become dog handlers and be involved in drugs investigations."

While the Met has been very successful in hiring male recruits, Sir John Stevens, the Commissioner, has admitted that it is struggling to attract enough female officers.

At the end of July, only 16.2 per cent of the 27,027 Met officers were women. Ten per cent of the 40 most senior officers are female. By far the greatest number and percentage are in the lowest rank of constable, where women make up about 18 per cent of the total.

The highest-ranking female officer is Deputy Assistant Commissioner Carol Howlett, who is in charge of child protection and holds the joint fourth most senior rank.

Mr Livingstone's comments are likely to be greeted with anger by many at Scotland Yard. Police chiefs are concerned that talk of overt sexism and poor promotion chances deters women from joining the force.