Anna Zacharias reports on a new study of women police officers in Dubai and finds cultural expectations are both fulfilled and challenged by the subjects’ perceptions
Dubai’s police women are every bit as good as their male peers. So say Dubai’s female police officers, in a study published last month by the British Journal of Criminology.
The study, Self Efficacy Beliefs and Preferred Gender Role in Policing, examines women’s self-perceptions of their ability to perform as effectively as their male counterparts.
The surveys and analysis of 278 female police officers in Dubai was performed by Dr Mohammed Murad, of the Dubai Police, and Dr Doris Chu, a criminologist at Arkansas State University who worked as a senior police supervisor at the Taipei City Police Department in Taiwan. This work, funded by a Middle East Studies Grant from Arkansas State University, builds on Dr Chu’s previous studies on female officers’ self-perception from a cross-cultural perspective.
Women’s self-perception matters. Not only does it affect on-the-job performance and adaptations to change, positive self-perception creates greater participation.
Since the first batch of 17 women joined the Dubai Police in 1977, the number has increased to more than 1,400 female officers, who serve at all levels as patrol officers, VIP bodyguards, human trafficking investigators, dog handlers and forensic experts. Despite their rise through the ranks, women account for fewer than one in 10 of the force’s 15,000 qualified police personnel.
“As more women now join police forces in a number of the countries in the Middle East, such as the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan, it is important to expand our understanding of women police’s perceptions about their roles in police work in this understudied region, so culturally and socially different from the west,” write the authors.
“Understanding how policewomen perceive their role and what assignments they prefer to have in policing is important, since these preferences may effect their job satisfaction, commitment and retention.”
Western models traditionally identify six linear stages of female integration into police enforcement, from entry and participation in gender-restricted roles to integration in diverse roles and the eventual balancing of gender in police work.
The Dubai study, like those conducted in Bahrain by Staci Strobl, an associate professor of criminal justice in New York who specialises in woman policing in the Gulf, suggests a more nuanced approach is better suited to the region. Female officers themselves do not always prefer a fully integrated role, often favouring gender-specific jobs where women handle female offenders and victims.
Integration need not be a zero-sum choice. “A hybrid model, featuring coexistence of gender integration and gender segregation, may more plausibly explain policewomen’s gender role orientation in a cultural setting like Dubai’s,” the study says.
The survey, conducted in November 2011, looks at three aspects: appropriateness (whether or not respondents considered police work an appropriate occupation for women), efficacy (whether women were as effective as men) and physical capability. Questions specific to patrol work were asked.
An additional section asked whether women should perform gender-specific roles. The study found high levels of female confidence unusual in male-dominated professions, with 76 per cent of respondents believing that a woman could perform as well as a man and 72 per cent believing that women are as capable as men in patrol work.
Out of all those who responded, three in five believe women can perform the same duties as male officers. However, four in five favour gender-specific roles, in which women police are assigned to handle women victims or women offenders and children. Those who have served for longer are more receptive than male officers to identical assignments and those with higher education are more favourable to non-gender restrictive assignments.
Women who work patrol or in criminal investigation are more likely to have positive appraisals of women in policing than those assigned to desk work and consider women physically capable to perform a variety of duties. “By witnessing their own capability at work, these women are more likely to embrace full gender integration and to accept the same assignment duties as men,” says the study.
The findings of this study cannot be generalised to rural areas of the Emirates or other parts of the Middle East. Indeed, women’s integration varies greatly from emirate to emirate. While female patrol work is well established in Dubai, there are no female patrol officers in Ras Al Khaimah.
The authors suggest future studies on male perceptions and in-depth interviews with women to understand positive and negative work experiences.
“In what circumstances, at what times have they felt excluded?” asks the study. “Such information can assist police administration in creating a woman-friendly environment for work, which would be likely to encourage more women to enter the field of law enforcement.”
Anna Zacharias is a features writer for The National.
azacharias@thenational.ae
The specs
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Dubai Bling season three
Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5
Ads on social media can 'normalise' drugs
A UK report on youth social media habits commissioned by advocacy group Volteface found a quarter of young people were exposed to illegal drug dealers on social media.
The poll of 2,006 people aged 16-24 assessed their exposure to drug dealers online in a nationally representative survey.
Of those admitting to seeing drugs for sale online, 56 per cent saw them advertised on Snapchat, 55 per cent on Instagram and 47 per cent on Facebook.
Cannabis was the drug most pushed by online dealers, with 63 per cent of survey respondents claiming to have seen adverts on social media for the drug, followed by cocaine (26 per cent) and MDMA/ecstasy, with 24 per cent of people.
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Studied up to grade 12 in Vatanappally, a village in India’s southern Thrissur district
Was a middle distance state athletics champion in school
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Director: Kangana Ranaut
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Date started: January 2017
Founder: Khaled Zaatarah
Based: Dubai and Los Angeles
Sector: Technology
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Funding: $7 million
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The Lowdown
Us
Director: Jordan Peele
Starring: Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright Joseqph, Evan Alex and Elisabeth Moss
Rating: 4/5
More on Yemen's civil war
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5pm: Handicap (TB) Dh100,000 2,400m
5.30pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh 70,000 2,200m
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6pm: Dhafra
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Breaking News: The Remaking of Journalism and Why It Matters Now
Alan Rushbridger, Canongate
Australia tour of Pakistan
March 4-8: First Test, Rawalpindi
March 12-16: Second Test, Karachi
March 21-25: Third Test, Lahore
March 29: First ODI, Rawalpindi
March 31: Second ODI, Rawalpindi
April 2: Third ODI, Rawalpindi
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More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
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Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
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Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4
Game Changer
Director: Shankar
Stars: Ram Charan, Kiara Advani, Anjali, S J Suryah, Jayaram
Rating: 2/5
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Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
Rating: 4.5/5
