© IJARW | ISSN (O) - 2582-1008 September 2020 | Vol. 2 Issue. 3 www.ijarw.com IJARW1176 International Journal of All Research Writings 50 POLICE WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT IN ETHIOPIA: OROMIA IN PERSPECTIVE Dessalegn Kebede Kedida Research, Community and consultancy service Directorate director, Oromia police College ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to assess police women’s empowerment in Ethiopia with emphasis on Oromia regional state police commission. More specifically, it aimed to assess factors affecting police women’s empowerment to assume a leadership position. That is aimed to examine gender difference in decision making position. To this end, a sample of 160 police women respondents were drawn from the region’s police. In order to determine the sample size probability simple random sampling method was employed. Then next, self- administered questionnaires and interview guides were used to gather data. The data were fed into SPSS version 20.0 followed by analysis and interpretation using descriptive statistics. The findings showed that police women’s are highly underrepresented in higher level leadership positions. This is mainly due to some major factors such as education, sociocultural antecedents; organizational culture and police commission recruitment and promotional practices. As such, the police women found difficult role model and less confidence for the leadership position. This research ends by forwarding a recommendation that in order to minimize the existing gender difference at the level of decision making, the Oromia police commission needs to implement affirmative action such as quota system for police women at entrance stage as well as clearly entrenching supportive criteria while assigning police officers at higher positions. Keyword: police women empowerment, women empowerment, Ethiopia 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1. Background of the study Law enforcement and order maintenance are generally viewed as the two main duties of the police force. In addition to these two duties, the police are also frequently requested by the public to deliver social services (Reid, 2001; Cox, 1996; Magenau & Hunt, 1996). As one of the law enforcement statutory service teams, the police are expected to provide immediate aid and care to the public along with compulsory, regulatory, control, and defense practices. Provision of public services is one of the most significant roles of the contemporary police. Studies have shown that the police spend most of their time providing police services to the public (Greene &Klockars, 1991). Global policing is greatly evolving on a daily basis. This has led to the enlistment of women in policing as compared to early ages where the profession was only meant for males. In U.S.A., research has revealed that in entering police work, women have encountered enormous difficulties primarily as a result of the negative attitudes of the men, Oruta, Lidara & Gauyas (2016). Quoted Brookshire, 1980; Block &Arderson, (1974) and Melchoire, (1976) in discussing about the difficulty that women encounter in policing. According to these authors; Male officers anticipate women failing they doubt women police can equal men in most job skills they do not see women police officers as doing "real" police work and they continue myths about women's lack of emotional fitness has pointed out that the biggest challenge facing women police officers is the resistance displayed by male officers in their attitudes toward women in policing. As a reflection of women’s traditional position in the society, however, women’s profile in number and quality within the police structure is very low. Culturally, women are associated with maternity and the role they play in a family (Lindsey, 2005; Walby, 1990). The role of women in procreation said to have created basis for their discrimination (CEDAW: 1979). Therefore, this study aims to examine factors that influence police women’s empowerment effort of the government in Oromia police commission. To this end, the study assesses Gender Empowerment Measures (GEM) (UNDP,