The glass ceiling for women working in the criminal justice system is still firmly in place, according to a new report, which portrays a system where men still dominate senior positions in all areas.
Only 12% of senior police officers at chief inspector level or above, are women; less than a quarter of prison governors are female and there is only one female law lord, according to a report from equality campaigning body the Fawcett Society, which describes the criminal justice system as "institutionally sexist".
Only three of the 37 lord justices of appeal are women and only just over 10% of the 109 high court judges are female, says the report, Engendering Justice: from policy to practice.
The figures are an indictment of the government's stated intentions to increase the number of senior women in roles across the public sector, but they also reflect a wider problem, since representation of women in senior roles in commercial firms is similarly woeful.
For example, last year, only 15.9% of partners in the UK's 10 largest law firms were women and there were only 42 female compared to 479 male silks.
The number of female applicants for Queen's Counsel was at its lowest level for 10 years.
In comparison, 44% of judges are women in Canada's supreme court, as are 43% of judges in the Australian high court.
The chair of the society's commission on women and the criminal justice system, Baroness Jean Corston, said female staff, female offenders and female victims of crime all face discrimination in a system designed for men by men.
From Bubb's Blog
From Whitehall Watch
