SEXISM WITHOUT SEXISTS: THE RHETORIC OF GENDER NEUTRALITY VS THE REALITY OF GENDER INEQUALITY IN THE SINGAPROE POLICE FORCE

Abstract

The past couple of years have seen the achievement of many historic milestones by the women of the Singapore Police Force (SPF). With headlines announcing the shattering of glass ceiling after glass ceiling, and the accomplishment of many ‘firsts’ proclaimed to be ‘the first of many’ to come, it appears that policewomen in SPF have finally succeeded in gaining entry into the notoriously male-dominated and hypermasculine profession. However, evidence suggests that this utopic narrative of initial exclusion to eventual acceptance can be called into question. Upon closer examination, we observe that policewomen in SPF continue to face gender discrimination in their workplace. Curious about this disjuncture between SPF’s rhetoric of gender equality and the persistently sexist reality experienced by policewomen on the ground, this study seeks to investigate why sexism has disappeared in the eyes of the organisation. Inspired by Bonilla-Silva’s theory of colourblind racism, this paper explains the disjuncture between rhetoric and reality as firstly, the result of adopting genderblind frames, and secondly, an outcome of the transformation of sexism from an overt discrimination to a more covert and thus, invisible form. What we are left with, consequently, is an organisation marked by ‘sexism without sexists’, in which sexist practices continue to endure, without the recognition that those practices are in fact sexist and discriminatory.