Major Metropolitan police stations should have crèches in order to boost numbers of female recruits, commissioner Sir John Stevens believes.

Sir John said the proportion of women in the force was "pitiful".

He told a conference of senior women officers in London that the Met faced challenges increasing the current figure of 17% to the next target of 26%.

Sir John told the 250 delegates that he wanted a crèche at Hendon training college within a few months.

He said: "If it works at Hendon we would look to open crèches at other police stations."

Gender complacence

Many critics have attributed the failure to crack female recruitment to a persisting "macho culture".

But there have also been suggestions that while the Met has spent a lot of time trying to attract ethnic minority recruits, it has become compacent over the gender imbalance.

Some critics suggest that long hours and anti-social shifts common in many police roles will always put off recruits who are also looking after children.

Sergeant Judy Redford, who represents sergeants in the Met and City of London forces, told the Independent newspaper she did not think crèches would solve the problem.

"A lot of police officers would be horrified and would not want their children to be anywhere near a police station," she said.