Despite decades of workplace interventions, women remain underrepresented in police agencies. Achieving parity in numbers, vertically across the police hierarchy and horizontally across different units, requires large numbers of women recruits. Recent initiatives attempting to reflect the approximate 50:50 gender distribution of the general population have faced difficulties. Once recruited, women need to be supported as they pursue a policing career and aspire to leadership roles. While many police agencies have demonstrated commitment to the development of gender equity policies and initiatives, ‘utilisation without disadvantage’ remains a persistent roadblock to their effectiveness. We cannot legislate our way out of gender equity challenges that are entrenched in police culture. The pursuit of gender equity goals in policing is likely to remain stagnant if the gendered nature of police work is not the subject of dedicated and committed cultural reform.