PSNI give out awards to male police officers for International Women’s Day

The Police Service of Northern Ireland have garnered significant traction online, following a post which was made promoting an International Women’s Day celebration where female officers nominated male officers for awards.

The awards were meant to recognise the male officers’ contribution for “supporting” female officers during the course of their career.

The post said how the theme for this years IWD is #EachIsEqual. Now your imagination may think that this is to highlight the amazing contributions which women have made to the PSNI. However, you’d be wrong on that.

It’s safe to say that people are not happy about the tone deaf decision by PSNI. This also comes just weeks after the recirculation of old PSNI “victim blaming” rape prevention leaflets which PSNI claim they were unaware of.

Since the criticism, PSNI have spoken out about the event, saying that the awards for men were just a small part of the award ceremony. In years before, the awards were entirely female focussed and this is the first year that men were included.

They stated: “The Police Service of Northern Ireland is fully committed to being representative of the community that it serves, and the Women in Policing Association will play its part on that journey. In light of the range of debate that has taken place, that has continued to reinforce just how important the issue of gender equality remains to be.”