A male police officer is saying to a female trainee:
”You know you need to be tough to be a cop Anna, you can’t be sensitive in a job like this.
A female police officer adds: “Exactly, this is not a job for girly girls. You need real strength to do this job.”
The above example is fictional and part of an interactive training programme, but it is based on jargon that is well known within the police service.
“We have introduced role-playing with examples of unprofessional jargon at the police academy in Iceland. It is crucial to take preventive measures early on to prevent sexual harassment,“ says Assistant Professor Finnborg Salome Steinþórsdóttir from the University of Iceland.
”And to bring about cultural change, the whole workplace needs to be involved,“ says Associate Professor Malin Wieslander from Linköping University.
”We live in a part of the world where we celebrate our good Nordic work culture, and yet we have this problem.”
These are the words of Brita Bjørkelo, Professor at Politihøgskolen in Oslo and Work and Organisational Psychology at Oslo Nye Høyskole. She heads the research project Understanding and Intervening against Sexual Harassment at work (UISH), which is part of NordForsk's research area Future working life. UISH is based on existing projects involving the police in three Nordic countries.
The aim of the project is to shed light on how the police can become a good and safe workplace that not only attracts new employees but also manages to retain them.
Sexual harassment is a fundamental workplace issue
The project investigates sexual harassment within the police forces of Norway, Sweden and Iceland. Despite an increasing number of women being trained and employed in the police force, it remains a male-dominated workplace, especially in senior positions. Previous research has also revealed that there is widespread harassment in the police and the armed forces.
Across the three countries, the project works with those who are subjected to sexual harassment, those who subject others to it, and those who witness it happening.
Researchers in the three countries are working in different areas. In Iceland, the role-plays have been developed by the researchers in the project and are based on previous research initiatives that have already shown good results and research into manifestations of sexual harassment within the police.
The example at the beginning of the article is taken from the Icelandic project, where police students play out different scenarios inspired by Power Plays and SUSH as part of their training. The aim is to make both students and police officers aware of what they can do to change an unhealthy work culture.
Have we not reached our goal?
The researchers involved in the project have found that not everyone within the police welcomes the focus on sexual harassment.
"One of the findings from the previous project was that we saw a sense of fatigue. Some people think that there has been a lot of talk about sexual harassment and that we have already reached our goal. It is true that there has been a lot of focus on it, but you also have to have fire drills and IT security drills every year, and it is the same with sexual harassment. You have to focus on it again and again, because it does not go away on its own," concludes Brita Bjørkelo.
Read more about the project's findings (open access):
Full article: Resistance to work against sexual harassment within the police
