The Fiji Police Women’s Ad­visory Network met last week to discuss ways of ad­vancing women officers within the institution.

The network is made up of senior women officers from the four po­licing divisions tasked to provide advice to the Fiji Police Women’s Network, the body that looks after the interest of women officers and women civilian staff of the insti­tution.

Opening the meeting was Acting Commissioner of Police Rusiate Tudravu, who acknowledged the contribution of women towards policing.

“Women have to balance so much more in their professional and personal lives and it’s great to see all of you overcome those chal­lenges and rise up the ranks,” Mr Tudravu said.

“The Force is a male-dominated institution, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be given the same op­portunity as your male comrades because we are operating under a merit-based system and we know that women are equally capable of producing the same or even better results.”

The women officers were chal­lenged to look at how the network could entice more women to take up managerial positions.

“All of you seated here hold sen­ior ranks and through your net­work you need to play a more vig­orous role in encouraging women officers to step out of their com­fort zones,” Mr Tudravu said.

He also acknowledged the ap­pointment of the Acting FPWN president, Inspector Ruci Nasemi­ra, as the Fiji Netball manager.

Discussions focused on the out­comes of various international meetings attended to by senior women officers and how it would be beneficial to their work.

Mr Tudravu said women officers brought a different dimension to policing, which has always been appreciated by the hierarchy.

Source: Police Media Cell

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