Female security guards: Why women are still only one in nine on the UK’s front line

Career

Picture a Friday night outside a busy bar in central London. The queue stretches down the street, a group of young women wait to go in, and every member of the team on the door is a man.

When a woman needs to be searched, or a customer feels unwell and would rather speak to another woman, the gap shows. Female security guards are still rare in the UK, and the reasons say a lot about how the industry treats them.

The gender bias women face in security work

Women in the job often describe the same assumptions: that they are there mainly to search other women, and that they will be a weak link if trouble starts.

In a 2021 survey of women in security by industry publication Working The Doors, many said they had to prove themselves to male colleagues before being trusted. Some also described sites with no proper toilet facilities for women.

Harassment is a deeper problem. A 2024 study by FFA Security Group, presented at The Security Event in Birmingham, found 99% of women who took part had experienced sexual harassment at work. Across all respondents, colleagues were named as perpetrators more often than members of the public.

That survey was voluntary, so people with direct experience may have been more likely to respond. Even so, it points to a culture problem inside the industry, not just trouble from drunk customers.

Why female security guards matter to London businesses

For a bar, shop or event, a mixed team changes what security can do. Many venues prefer women customers to be searched by a woman. A woman who thinks her drink has been spiked may also find a female guard easier to approach.

In its most recent survey on personal safety, carried out in 2022, the Office for National Statistics found half of women aged 16 to 34 had experienced at least one form of harassment in the previous year.

The SIA offers licence holders free WAVE (Welfare and Vulnerability Engagement) training, which covers spiking and the Ask for Angela scheme. Those skills work best when the team reflects the people it protects.

A lesson from international security

None of this is new thinking. When the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1325 in 2000, it called for women to be involved at every level of decisions about conflict and security. Armed forces working overseas have learned the same lesson: you cannot engage with a community if you only speak to its men. That holds on a club door too.

If you outsource your security requirements to a provider such as Imperial Security, which supplies SIA-licensed guards for retail, door supervision and events, it is fair to ask how they recruit, support and deploy female security guards, and what happens when a guard reports harassment.

How many female security guards are there in the UK?

Every security guard, door supervisor and CCTV operator in the UK needs a licence from the Security Industry Authority (SIA), the industry’s regulator.

SIA figures published in March 2026 show around 50,000 women hold an active licence, compared with roughly 408,000 men. That is about 11%, or one in nine.

London does only a little better.

Progress has been slow. In 2022 the SIA’s chief executive said the share of women had stayed at around 10% for several years. Four years on, it has barely moved.

The picture is not the same at every level. Professional Security magazine, reporting SIA figures from early 2025, found women held under 11% of door supervisor licences but over a quarter of non-front-line licences, held by managers and directors who do not do security work themselves.

Women are reaching the office. They are much rarer on the doors and shop floors where the public actually meets security.

A law change London employers need to know

There is now a legal reason to act too. From 30 October 2026, according to Acas, employers become liable for harassment of their staff by third parties, such as customers and members of the public, unless they have taken all reasonable steps to prevent it.

The same date reinforces employers’ existing duty to prevent sexual harassment. Security guards deal with the public at close range every shift, so security firms and the venues that use them should agree who does what, from reporting incidents to banning abusive customers.

What good practice looks like

1. Actively recruit women and promote them to supervisor roles on the ground, not only in the office.
2. Deploy female security guards on merit across all duties, not just searches.
3. Provide uniforms and protective kit that fit, plus proper toilets and rest areas on every site.
4. Give guards a confidential way to report harassment, including by colleagues and clients, and act on it.
5. Ask your security provider about its policies before you sign a contract.

Female security guards: common questionsWhat percentage of security guards in the UK are women?

About 11% of SIA licence holders are women, according to SIA figures published in March 2026.

Can a business ask only for female security guards?

Under the Equality Act 2010, a job can be restricted to one sex only where there is a genuine occupational requirement and doing so is proportionate. Businesses should take advice on their own situation.

Not just a women’s issue

More women in security is not only about fairness. It builds teams that can look after everyone who walks through the door.

With a new legal duty weeks away and the share of women stuck at around one in nine, this autumn is a good moment for London businesses and their security providers to look at who is on the rota, and why.