Women Police 9780815399117, 9781351142847

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Women Police

International Library of Criminology, Criminal Justice and Penology - Second Series Series Editor: Gerald Mars and David Nelken Titles in the Series: Gender and Prisons Dana Britton Detecting Deception David Canter and Donna Youngs Offender Profiling David Canter and Michael Davis Recent Developments in Criminological Theory Stuart Henry The Criminology of War Ruth Jamieson The Impact of HIV/AIDS on Criminology and Criminal Justice MarkM. Lanier Women Police Mangai Natarajan Crime and Immigration Graeme Newman and Joshua Freilich Crime and Social Institutions Richard Rosenfeld The Death Penalty, Volumes I and II Austin Sarat Gangs Jacqueline Schneider and Nick Tdley Corporate Crime Sally Simpson and Carole Gibbs Crime and Deviance in Cyberspace David Wall Quantitative Methods in Criminology David Weisburd and Shawn Bushway Surveillance and Social Control Dean Wilson and Clive Norris

Women Police

Edited by

Mangai Natarajan John Jay College o f Criminal Justice, USA

First published 2005 by Ashgate Publishing Reissued 2018 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © Mangai Natarajan 2005. For copyright of individual articles please refer to the Acknowledgements.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. A Library of Congress record exists under LC control number: 2004053822 Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Publisher’s Note The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent. Disclaimer The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and welcomes correspondence from those they have been unable to contact. ISBN 13: 978-0-815-39911-7 (hbk) ISBN 13: 978-1-351-14284-7 (ebk)

Contents Acknowledgements Series Preface Introduction

PART I

THE HISTORY OF WOMEN IN POLICING

1 Janis Appier (1992), ‘Preventive Justice: The Campaign for Women Police, 1910-1940’, Women and Criminal Justice, 4, pp. 3-36. 2 Dorothy Moses Schulz (1993), ‘Policewomen in the 1950s: Paving the Way for Patrol’, Women and Criminal Justice, 4, pp. 5-30. 3 Susan E. Martin (1989), ‘Women on the Move?: A Report on the Status of Women in Policing’, Women and Criminal Justice, 1, pp. 21-40. 4 Tim Prenzler (1998), ‘Concession and Containment: The Establishment of Women in the Queensland Police, 1931-1965’, Australian and New Zealand Journal o f Criminology, 31, pp. 119-40. 5 Jennifer Brown (2000), ‘Discriminatory Experiences of Women Police. A Comparison of Officers Serving in England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland’, International Journal o f the Sociology o f Law, 28, pp. 91-111.

PART II

ix xi xiii

3 37 63

83

105

IMPEDIMENTS TO FULL INTEGRATION

Simon Holdaway and Sharon K. Parker (1998), ‘Policing Women Police’, British Journal o f Criminology, 38, pp. 40-60. 7 Ni He, Jihong Zhao and Carol A. Archbold (2002), ‘Gender and Police Stress: The Convergent and Divergent Impact of Work Environment, Work-Family Conflict, and Stress Coping Mechanisms of Female and Male Police Officers’, Policing: An International Journal o f Police Strategies and Management, 25, pp. 687-708. 8 Curt R. Bartol, George T. Bergen, Julie Seager Volckens and Kathleen M. Knoras (1992), ‘Women in Small-Town Policing: Job Performance and Stress’, Criminal Justice and Behavior, 19, pp.240-59. 9 Carol Martin (1996), ‘The Impact of Equal Opportunities Policies on the Day-toDay Experiences of Women Police Constables’, British Journal o f Criminology, 36, pp. 510-28.

6

129

151

173

193

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10

11

12

Penny Dick and Devi Jankowicz (2001), ‘A Social Constructionist Account of Police Culture and its Influence on the Representation and Progression of Female Officers: A Repertory Grid Analysis in a UK Police Force’, Policing: An International Journal o f Police Strategies and Management, 24, pp. 181-99. Jennifer Brown, Anita Maidment and Ray Bull (1993), ‘Appropriate Skill-Task Matching or Gender Bias in Deployment of Male and Female Police Officers?’, Policing and Society, 3, pp. 121-36. Michael L. Birzer and Delores E. Craig (1996), ‘Gender Differences in Police Physical Ability Test Performance’, American Journal o f Police, 15, pp. 93-108.

PART III

13 14 15 16

17 18

19 20

21 22

249

267 293 333 347

THE CURRENT STATUS OF WOMEN POLICE WORLDWIDE

Erella Shadmi (1993), ‘Female Police Officers in Israel: Patterns of Integration and Discrimination’, Feminist Issues, 13, pp. 23-45. Cyndi Banks (2001), “‘We Have to Prove We Are Not Just Women”: Policewomen in Papua New Guinea’, International Journal o f Comparative Criminology, 1, pp. 40-76. Sara Nelson (1996), ‘Constructing and Negotiating Gender in Women’s Police Stations in Brazil’, Latin American Perspectives, 23, pp. 131-48. Mangai Natarajan (2002), ‘Women Police in Tamil Nadu, India: A Tale of Two Cohorts’, International Journal o f Comparative Criminology, 2, pp. 201-24.

PART V

233

PERCEIVED PERFORMANCE AND ATTITUDES TO WOMEN POLICE

Merry Morash and Jack R. Greene (1986), ‘Evaluating Women on Patrol: A Critique of Contemporary Wisdom’, Evaluation Review, 10, pp. 230-55. Alissa Pollitz Worden (1993), ‘The Attitudes of Women and Men in Policing: Testing Conventional and Contemporary Wisdom’, Criminology, 31, pp. 203-41. Michael G. B red (1997), ‘Female Officers on Patrol: Public Perceptions in the 1990’s’, Journal o f Crime and Justice, 20, pp. 153-65. Margot Ffrench and Linda Waugh (1998), ‘The'Weaker Sex? Women and Police Work’, International Journal o f Police Science and Management, 1, pp. 260-75.

PART IV

213

365

389 427 445

PROSPECTS FOR FULL INTEGRATION

Tim Prenzler and Hennessey Hayes (2000), ‘Measuring Progress in Gender Equity in Australian Policing’, Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 12, pp. 20-38. Frances Heidensohn (1998), ‘Comparative Models of Policing and the Role of Women Officers’, International Journal o f Police Science and Management, 1, pp. 215-26.

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23 24

Jennifer Brown (1997), ‘European Policewomen; A Comparative Research Perspective’, International Journal o f the Sociology o f Law, 25, pp. 1-19. Mangai Natarajan (2001), ‘Women Police in a Traditional Society: Test of a Western Model of Integration’, International Journal o f Comparative Sociology, 42, pp. 211-33.

Name Index

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503

523

547

Acknowledgements The editor and publishers wish to thank the following for permission to use copyright material. American Society of Criminology for the essay: Alissa Pollitz Worden (1993), ‘The Attitudes of Women and Men in Policing: Testing Conventional and Contemporary Wisdom’, Criminology, 31, pp. 203-41. Brill Academic Publishers for the essay: Mangai Natarajan (2001), ‘Women Police in a Traditional Society: Test of a Western Model of Integration’, International Journal o f Comparative Sociology, 42, pp. 211-33. Copyright © 2001 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden. de Sitter Publications for the essays: Mangai Natarajan (2002), ‘Women Police in Tamil Nadu, India: A Tale of Two Cohorts’, International Journal o f Comparative Criminology, 2, pp. 201— 24. Copyright © 2002 de Sitter Publications; Cyndi Banks (2001), “‘We Have to Prove We Are Not Just Women”: Policewomen in Papua New Guinea’, International Journal o f Comparative Criminology, 1, pp. 40-16. Copyright © 2001 de Sitter Publications. Elsevier for the essays: Jennifer Brown (2000), ‘Discriminatory Experiences of Women Police. A Comparison of Officers Serving in England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland’, International Journal o f the Sociology o f Law, 28, pp. 91-111. Copyright © 2000 Elsevier; Jennifer Brown (1997), ‘European Policewomen; A Comparative Research Perspective’, International Journal o f the Sociology o f Law, 25, pp. 1-19. Copyright © 1997 Elsevier. Emerald Group Publishing Limited for the essays: Ni He, Jihong Zhao and Carol A. Archbold (2002), ‘Gender and Police Stress: The Convergent and Divergent Impact of Work Environment, Work-Family Conflict, and Stress Coping Mechanisms of Female and Male Police Officers’, Policing: An International Journal o f Police Strategies and Management, 25, pp. 687-708; Penny Dick and Devi Jankowicz (2001), ‘A Social Constructionist Account of Police Culture and its Influence on the Representation and Progression of Female Officers: A Repertory Grid Analysis in a UK Police Force’, Policing: An International Journal o f Police Strategies and Management, 24, pp. 181-99; Michael L. Birzer and Delores E. Craig (1996), ‘Gender Differences in Police Physical Ability Test Performance’, American Journal o f Police, 15, pp. 93-108. Haworth Press, Inc. for the essays: Dorothy Moses Schulz (1993), ‘Policewomen in the 1950s: Paving the Way for Patrol’, Women and Criminal Justice, 4, pp. 5-30. Copyright © 1993 Haworth Press, Inc.; Janis Appier (1992), ‘Preventive Justice: The Campaign for Women Police, 1910-1940’, Women and Criminal Justice, 4, pp. 3-36. Copyright © 1992 Haworth Press, Inc.;

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Susan E. Martin (1989), ‘Women on the Move?: AReport on the Status of Women in Policing’, Women and Criminal Justice, 1, pp. 21-40. Copyright © 1989 Haworth Press, Inc. Institute of Criminology for the essay: Tim Prenzler and Hennessey Hayes (2000), ‘Measuring Progress in Gender Equity in Australian Policing’, Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 12, pp. 20—38. Journal of Crime and Justice for the essay: Michael G. B red (1997), ‘Female Officers on Patrol: Public Perceptions in the 1990’s’, Journal o f Crime and Justice, 20, pp. 153-65. Oxford University Press for the essays: Carol Martin (1996), ‘The Impact of Equal Opportunities Policies on the Day-to-Day Experiences of Women Police Constables’, British Journal o f Criminology, 36, pp. 510-28; Simon Holdaway and Sharon K. Parker (1998), ‘Policing Women Police’, British Journal o f Criminology, 38, pp. 40-60. Tim Prenzler (1998), ‘Concession and Containment: The Establishment of Women in the Queensland Police, 1931-1965’, Australian and New Zealand Journal o f Criminology, 31, pp. 119-40. Copyright © 1998 Tim Prenzler. Sage Publications, Inc. for the essays: Curt R. Bartol, George T. Bergen, Julie Seager Volckens and Kathleen M. Knoras (1992), ‘Women in Small-Town Policing: Job Performance and Stress’, Criminal Justice and Behavior, 19, pp. 240-59. Copyright © 1992 American Association for Correctional Psychology; Merry Morash and Jack R. Greene (1986), ‘Evaluating Women on Patrol: A Critique of Contemporary Wisdom’, Evaluation Review, 10, pp. 230-55. Copyright © 1986 Sage Publications, Inc; Sara Nelson (1996), ‘Constructing and Negotiating Gender in Women’s Police Stations in Brazil’, Latin American Perspectives, 23, pp. 131-48. Copyright © 1996 Latin American Perspectives. Taylor & Francis Ltd for the essay: Jennifer Brown, Anita Maidment and Ray Bull (1993), ‘Appropriate Skill-Task Matching or Gender Bias in Deployment of Male and Female Police Officers?’, Policing and Society, 3, pp. 121-36. http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals. Transaction Publishers for the essay: Erella Shadmi (1993), ‘Female Police Officers in Israel: Patterns of Integration and Discrimination’, Feminist Issues, 13, pp. 23-45. Copyright © 1993 Transaction Publishers. Vathek Publishing for the essays: Margot Ffrench and Linda Waugh (1998), ‘The Weaker Sex? Women and Police Work’, International Journal o f Police Science and Management, 1, pp. 26075; Frances Heidensohn (1998), ‘Comparative Models of Policing and the Role of Women Officers’, International Journal o f Police Science and Management, 1, pp. 215-26. Every effort has been made to trace all the copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangement at the first opportunity.

Preface to the Second Series The first series of the International Library of Criminology, Criminal Justice and Penology has established itself as a major research resource by bringing together the most significant journal essays in contemporary criminology, criminal justice and penology. The series made available to researchers, teachers and students an extensive range of essays which are indispensable for obtaining an overview of the latest theories and findings in this fast changing subject. Indeed the rapid growth of interesting scholarly work in the field has created a demand for a second series which like the first consists of volumes dealing with criminological schools and theories as well as with approaches to particular areas o f crime criminal justice and penology. Each volume is edited by a recognised authority who has selected twenty or so of the best journal articles in the field of their special competence and provided an informative introduction giving a summary of the field and the relevance of the articles chosen. The original pagination is retained for ease of reference. The difficulties of keeping on top of the steadily growing literature in criminology are complicated by the many disciplines from which its theories and findings are drawn (sociology, law, sociology of law, psychology, psychiatry, philosophy and economics are the most obvious). The development of new specialisms with their own journals (policing, victimology, mediation) as well as the debates between rival schools of thought (feminist criminology, left realism, critical criminology, abolitionism etc.) make necessary overviews that offer syntheses of the state of the art. GERALD MARS Visiting Professor, Brunei University, Middlesex, UK DAVID NELKEN Distinguished Professor o f Sociology, University o f Macerata, Italy; Distinguished Research Professor o f Law, University o f Cardiff, Wales; Honourary Visiting Professor o f Law, LSE, London, UK

Introduction Until quite recently law enforcement was largely a male preserve, but during the past 30 years women have been employed in increasingly larger numbers and they are helping to change the face of law enforcement all over the world. The degree to which this is happening varies with the stage of social and economic development in a given society and in relation to the strength of a resistant or supportive culture. More generally, the acceptance of women in the police has depended on a confluence of several key factors: favourable public attitudes towards women’s participation in the labour force, especially in male-dominated jobs; the women’s movement and support groups; and laws prohibiting gender discrimination and sexual harassment. Although women are now to be found in the police forces of many countries, they still comprise a small minority of serving officers (Fielding and Fielding, 1992; Heidensohn, Chapter 22, this volume; Prenzler, Chapter 4, this volume; Harris, 1999; Horne, 1999). For example, in the United States in 2001 women accounted for only 12.7 per cent of all sworn law enforcement positions in large agencies (with 100 or more sworn personnel) - a figure that is less than 4 per cent higher than in 1990 when women comprised 9 per cent of sworn officers (National Center for Women and Policing, 2002). As might be expected, the picture in most other countries is even more discouraging. Even where women are employed in large numbers, they have not been fully integrated into policing. Their roles, career expectations and the opportunities open to them are all considerably more limited than for men (Jones, 1986; Martin, 1990; Schulz, 1995; Coffey, Brown and Savage, 1992; Fletcher, 1995; Martin and Jurik, 1996; Wertsch, 1998). Women are often assigned to non-line functions, which places them on the periphery of policing. This is particularly the case in developing countries where the women’s movement lacks credibility, where there is widespread resistance to women joining the labour force and where equal opportunity laws have been weak or non-existent. One reason why women officers have not been granted equal status is the fact that policing is portrayed in the media and elsewhere as a masculine job, requiring physical strength and resilience. Generally overlooked are the many other qualities needed to carry out police work successfully. These include patience, compromise, empathy and diplomacy - all qualities that women possess to a considerable degree. To some extent, these qualities lead women to prefer certain roles, which often results in them ending up in ‘low-status’ policing work (Jones, 1986; Brown and Campbell, 1991; Brown and Heidensohn, 2000; Gerber, 2001), although it tends to be forgotten that in some of the ‘low-status’ roles (for example, dealing with female and juvenile offenders) women must still be competent in basic policing skills. Equally overlooked is the fact that policing serves not just law enforcement, but also two other important functions - the maintenance of order and service to the public - which women can perform equally well as, if not better than, men. Even though research has confirmed that women perform better than men in some police duties, this finding is rarely taken into account when assigning duties to women. Any minor failures by women are inflated into major problems and woven into stereotypical comments,

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such as ‘women cannot do this and that’. Sometimes the stereotypes are harsh (Wexler and Logan, 1983; Price, 1996; Brown, 1998; Haar and Morash, 1999; Greene and del Carmen, 2002) and women are devalued just for being women - a situation that leads to helplessness and also results in many women officers becoming unhappy in their work and eventually leaving. Whilst managers often claim that women leave at a greater rate than men because they lack commitment to the work (Metcalfe and Gavin, 2002), it is the constant criticism about their performance and the frequent lack of encouragement from superiors that is the much larger factor (Poole and Pogrebin, 1988; Timmins and Hainsworth, 1989; Felkenes and Lasley, 1992; Belknap and Shelley, 1993; Pelkey and DeGrange, 1996; Metcalfe and Gavin, 2002). In addition to the lack of encouragement and support, women police are faced with active discrimination. Many male officers are hostile to women officers, who are criticized as not being ‘fitted’ for the job - stereotyping that some accept (Grant, 2000). Together with the lack of opportunity to perform the same range of duties as men, this leads many to prefer traditional ‘women’s’ roles rather than fully integrated roles. It has to be said that this may carry advantages for some - for example, they might not have to work shifts - but for many others the constant battle to prove their worth results in considerable stress. Consequently, their confidence suffers and so does their motivation to work. However, some women overcome these obstacles and win reluctant acceptance from their male colleagues. The constant refrain of the advice given by these successful officers to younger women in the force is that to succeed they have to be ‘twice as good as men’. Heidensohn (2002) notes that there are two prevailing views about the assimilation of women in policing. The first derives from the equal opportunity position that women have a right to enter any occupation they choose to, and that they should fill the same role as men in the police. The second one derives from the origins of female law enforcement, when women police dealt with women and children. It holds that women have a specialist role in the police that they are uniquely qualified to fulfil. Of course, prevailing norms in a society play an important part in shaping women’s roles in police. In Western countries there is strong societal pressure to improve the status of women in all social arenas, including the police force. However, in traditional societies, where strapped economies and other pressing needs and priorities make equality for women of secondary importance, the position of women is improving only slowly. According to the United Nations, ‘Gender equity means fairness of treatment for women and men, according to their respective needs. This may include equal treatment or treatment that is different but which is considered equivalent in terms of rights, benefits, obligations and opportunities’ (International Labour Organization, 2000, p. 48). This suggests that opportunities provided need to be based on expertise and skills rather than on ‘gender’ stereotypes. If this definition is accepted, the key point is fair and equivalent treatment, not necessarily the same treatment. Thus it is legitimate to use men and women for different policing tasks and to try to match these tasks to the different preferences and skills of men and women officers, but it is not legitimate to then discriminate against women officers because they are not doing the same work as men. The work of both men and women must be equally valued and rewarded. If police managers can succeed in meeting this requirement they will find it easier to attract and retain women in the police force. Too few women undertaking a narrow range of duties means that police departments must make greater efforts to recruit more women and use them more fully. Identifying the most fruitful strategies, and assessing the prospects for success, requires a wide review of both the

Women Police

existing position of women in the police and existing recruitment and deployment practices. This collection of essays provides a review of the status of women officers worldwide, as well as the progress that has been made to date in integrating them into the police. It provides an account of women policing and their current status in five Parts, covering: the history of women in policing (Part I); impediments to full integration (Part II); perceived performance and attitudes to women police (Part III); the current status of women police worldwide (Part IV); prospects for full integration (Part V). Of the more than 400 published essays on women police that were reviewed, 24 were chosen to fit the five Parts of this collection. Those selected were all originally published in peerreviewed journals. Most of them are extensively cited, and they include roughly equal numbers of quantitative and qualitative pieces. Between them, they cover the major theoretical perspectives encountered in the literature on women police. Most of the literature is American or European in origin (with some Australian), but a special effort was made to include the best essays that deal with women police in other parts of the world.

The History of Women in Policing Many accounts exist of the origins of women’s entry into the police. They document strong opposition to the employment of women and describe the ways in which this opposition has been partially overcome so that women have now achieved a greater degree of integration in the police forces of Britain, America, Australia and Europe. The topics discussed fall under the following headings: resistance to the deployment of women; segregation of duties; stereotypes about women’s physical fitness; and doubts about their capacity to exercise authority and employ force when needed. In Chapter 1, Janis Appier discusses the way in which women police in America during 1910s, 1920s and 1930s were assimilated into the general crime prevention role of the police, even though the tasks they performed in this role were rather circumscribed. When policing began to move to a crime control model, women officers increasingly found their work devalued and their functions increasingly segregated. This trend culminated in the establishment of women police bureaus to which women and children coming to police attention would be channelled for help in personal matters. These bureaus were later abolished as a result of the broader social movement for equal status and employment for women. These social changes, reinforced by legal reforms in support of women’s equality in the 1950s, changed the roles of women police in the 1960s and 1970s from social workers to crime fighters. According to Dorothy Schulz (Chapter 2), the post-war generation of women officers generally came from the middle class and was relatively well educated. These officers put more emphasis on professionalism than equality and were generally content to work in the women’s bureaus. It was the later generation of recruits, generally drawn from the working class and with only a high school diploma, who became frustrated with their segregation in the bureaus and who claimed the right to do the same work as male officers. Based on a mail survey data from 319 agencies, Susan Martin, in Chapter 3, describes the passage of the 1972 Amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which eliminated discriminatory policies, and how this affirmative-action legislation greatly increased the numbers of women entering the American police. The data she reviews on recruitment, selection, retention and

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promotion show a mixed picture regarding the status of women in policing. They have generally followed a career path somewhat different from men and they have sometimes reached the higher ranks, but not in proportion to the numbers recruited. In countries such as Australia, women police were hired to respond to the rapid growth in automobile use, which resulted in an expanded role for police in traffic control. In Chapter 4, Tim Prenzler, in 1998, describes the history of women policing in that country. He reports that far fewer women than men have been recruited and that they have been assigned different roles, primarily because of low scores on physical ability tests. He argues that the case for employing women officers can no longer be based on the concept of their distinctive contribution to police work, although, at the same time, the rights of women offenders and victims to be dealt with by their own gender remain valid grounds for employing equal numbers of women officers. He also emphasizes the important role played by pressure exerted by powerful political figures (especially women) in moving the police further along the path of gender equality. In Chapter 5 Jennifer Brown suggests that police forces do respond to the demand for equal status by making greater use of women in the full range of operational roles. In turn, this results in women officers becoming more confident in challenging and reporting unacceptable behaviours and practices. Thus, a higher reporting rate for discrimination and harassment is a function of feminist awareness. When women are in a minority, the use of gender stereotyping is likely to persist and they may be treated as tokens. When the proportion of women officers rises, they offer a more substantial challenge to the dominant male norms and male officers may increase their discriminatory treatment in an attempt to retain normative control.

Impediments to Full Integration The barriers working against the full integration of women into law enforcement are embedded in the historical evolution of policing and are invariably linked to the status of women in particular societies (United Nations, 1985). These barriers are: (1) longstanding sociocultural perceptions of the nature of police work; (2) features of the organizational structure of law enforcement and the police subculture; and, most important, (3) pervasive stereotyping of female police officers by their male colleagues, supervisors and the public at large. Using survey data collected from 263 women and 320 men in one police force in England, Simon Holdaway and Sharon Parker (Chapter 6) analyse the different ways in which perceived gender roles and internal organizational culture combine to structure women’s employment in the police. Conflicts between home and work make it difficult for women officers to meet their professional goals, despite their strong commitment to key values of the occupation. But they are also hindered by dominant ideas about who should be employed on different types of police work - ideas that, for example, resulted in the exclusion of women officers from the CID. Policing is generally considered a stressful job, especially for women officers. The main sources of stress are: the work environment, the lack of peer support and trust; social and family pressures; the bureaucratic nature of the police organization; and lack of time or opportunity to make use of coping mechanisms. In Chapter 7, Ni He, Jihong Zhao and Carol Archbold compare survey data on 943 men and 157 women from a large police department in Baltimore. They report that women officers do have higher levels of depression compared to

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their male counterparts. However, they also found that, in attempting to cope with depression, women were more likely to take constructive steps, such as seeking spiritual guidance and discussing problems with their husbands, family members and friends. In Chapter 8, Curt Bartol et al. report on the basis of interviews held with 30 male and 30 female officers in one Vermont municipal department, that stressors are generally the same for both men and women officers. However, women officers experienced more stress when exposed to tragedy, and felt more responsibility for the safety of the public and their professional colleagues. Women also reported stress associated with working in a male-dominated occupation, resulting from sexual harassment and negative attitudes towards female police officers. According to Carol Martin (Chapter 9), sexual harassment is a serious issue, but not the most important one for women officers. Issues surrounding maternity leaves and childcare have more serious ramifications for the careers of women police officers. Martin emphasizes the need to deal directly with these issues, but she recognizes that this requires an unusual degree of commitment and a certain amount of ‘moral bravery’ on the part of senior officials. She also criticizes the feminist perspective as being too one-sided and recommends that male officers’ views be canvassed when examining equal opportunities policies. On the basis of repertory grid interviews with 51 male and female officers, Penny Dick and Devi Jankowicz (Chapter 10) examine whether the police organizational culture is a major impediment to women’s advancement in the police. Of the 11 categories identified by the respondents as central themes, commitment seems to be interpreted differently by men and women. Specifically, women officers choose not to work longer hours due to their family commitments. This has a negative impact on their chances of promotion. The authors conclude that gender influences organizational culture through sociocultural transmission of genderdifferentiated expectations such as who should be the primary care giver at home. In Chapter 11 Jennifer Brown, Anita Maidment and Ray Bull examine self-report data collected from three groups: 32 male officers, 31 women officers and 32 sergeants. They found gender difference in only four of the 17 attributes studied. Women considered themselves as having effective listening skills and as being more likely to show consideration for others, whilst men were more likely to rate themselves higher for physical strength and their ability to use physical force. This was confirmed by the sergeants’ ratings of these officers. These differences were reflected in different deployment patterns. Men were more frequently assigned to public order duties and dealing with traffic accidents whereas women were more frequently assigned to dealing with victims of sexual offences. The data also indicates that in only one of the ten duties - public order - was physical strength considered important, but women were rarely assigned to these tasks. The study suggests that gender bias could be the major force in explaining the differential treatment of women in policing. Many studies show that physical strength tests in police force are discriminatory (Charles, 1982; Evans, 1980; Prenzler, 1996). Despite condemnation by the courts of the use of height and weight standards, many police departments continue to use tests of physical strength. In Chapter 12 Michael Birzer and Dolores Craig review eight years’ worth of data to see whether the test measures abilities demanded by various police tasks. They found little relationship between the abilities tested and the physical demands of the job.

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Perceived Performance and Attitudes to Women Police Can women officers perform patrol duty as effectively as men? This was the question addressed by evaluative studies of women on patrol conducted in the United States during the 1970s and 1980s. All empirical data confirm that masculinity is not a bona fide occupational qualification for doing police patrol work (see, for example, Bloch and Anderson, 1974). Furthermore a large volume of empirical data agrees on the following: 1 Women perform patrol duties as well as men. 2 Women perform better than men in situations with children and women. 3 Women are good at defusing potentially violent situations. Nevertheless, it is the assumed inability of women to cope with violence that runs through many of the arguments for restricting women’s role in the police force. Research findings have concluded that women are able to perform as well as men on general patrol. The question whether women could perform patrol duties has been more political than practical. The positive conclusions of these studies gave policy-makers and administrators more confidence in women’s abilities and encouraged them to recruit more women officers. As the numbers of these officers increased, administrators began to focus on more specific questions concerning effectiveness. How do women differ from men in performance? Which areas of their work should be improved? What can be done to improve their performance? How can training standards and hiring practices be improved? What are women’s expectations in the police force? And what are male officers’ attitudes towards their female counterparts? Feminist scholars have been critical of much of the research conducted to answer these kinds of questions. Their two basic charges are that the research concentrates, first, on variables that are highly valued because they are associated with maleness and, second, on variables that distinguish men and women rather than the variables that unite them. In Chapter 13 Merry Morash and Jack Greene review nine evaluation studies undertaken during the 1970s in the USA and find that the gender differences reported are the result of psychological or biological characteristics of women and the failure to examine differences within same-sexed groups. They argue that the research problem is more related to a biased definition of the police role than to gender differences. They also identified several other shortcomings in the studies, including a failure to evaluate the accomplishment of identifiable police tasks or to specify preferred behaviours. Furthermore, many studies were prefaced on conformity with male stereotypes, which is a questionable criterion for assessing women’s performance. Although few important differences in the performance of men and women have been found in these studies, it has been generally found that women can more often successfully resolve conflicts without resorting to force. Perhaps this is the standard against which the performance of men might be judged! Almost all research studies show that male officers resist the employment of women in the police force and doubt that they can perform as well as males (Dorsey and Giacopassi, 1986; Balkin, 1988). Using survey data collected in 1977 from a sample of 740 officers in 24 police departments, Alissa Worden (Chapter 14) examines officers’ attitudes to their roles, to citizens, to their colleagues and departments, and regarding occupational integration. She finds few differences and notes that these might simply be the product of different experiences of male

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and female officers in the police. She suggests that there is a tendency in gender research to comb through data to find differences that might in fact be small or unimportant and argues that, over time, men’s and women’s views will converge as a result of women being employed in a greater variety of roles. Finally, she points out that research usually overlooks positive aspects of feminine behaviours such as attentiveness and responsiveness to citizens. Attitudes and perceptions change over time and what may have been true in the 1970s and 1980s may not hold now. In Chapter 15, Michael B red reports on an American study designed to find out whether the public still hold the same stereotypical attitudes prevalent in the 1970s and 1980s about the capacity of female officers to deal with violence. After questioning 702 individuals (42 per cent male and 58 per cent female), he reports that, although most people believe that women are as good as men in performing police duties, some gender differences are perceived. Male police officers are characterized by aggressiveness, resourcefulness and bravery, while women officers are identified with empathy, nurturing and sensitivity. It has traditionally been thought that women do not belong in patrol because of their lack of physical strength and their inability to maintain an authoritative presence in the face of conflict. Further, it has been argued that women officers might create danger for male colleagues and for the public during violent situations (Jones, 1986; Grennan, 1987). Based on data obtained from 300 men and 59 women constables in the Queensland police, Margot Ffrench and Linda Waugh (Chapter 16) report that the perception of women as the ‘weaker sex’ has fuelled these attitudes. They argue that actions of chivalry or gallantry by male peers or supervisors which attempt to shield women from potentially violent situations may effectively reduce their exposure to a range of policing experiences, thereby disadvantaging their chances of advancement and perpetuating the stereotypical view of women as the weak link.

The Current Status of Women Police Worldwide Most cross-cultural comparisons of police have focused on men, and those that have compared women have most often included only Western nations. The only studies of women police that go beyond Western nations are descriptive accounts of the numbers of women officers and the ways in which they are deployed. Although few of the studies are in-depth, they confirm that the progress of women police in traditional societies is far behind that of their Western counterparts (Sherman, 1977; Yang, 1981;Stevens andPatlye, 1985; Fairchild, 1987;Igbinovia, 1987; Natarajan, 1996; Pagon and Lobnikar, 1999; Brown and Heidensohn, 2000; Flavin and Bennett, 2001). In Chapter 17, Erella Shadmi explores the status of women in the Israeli police force. She concludes that women have not been fully integrated and that they still encounter discriminatory practices. However, progress is slowly being made, which she attributes to successful performance of duties, unified pressure to obtain promotion, some enlightened thinking among senior officials and the growing intolerance of sex discrimination. To achieve any degree of recognition in the police force, women in traditional societies have had to work much harder than their male counterparts. In Chapter 18 Cyndi Banks describes the case of women police in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and compares their situation with that in the United States and Britain. The study identifies some similarities, such as the reluctance of police managers to expose women officers to the risk of violence on patrol and

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the recognition of women’s expertise in dealing with women and children. In PNG, women police officers play a particularly valuable role in marital conflicts. In Western countries, marital disharmony is a private matter; when couples need assistance they turn to marriage counselling services. In PNG society, however, there is traditionally little distinction between the public and the domestic realm and so the public constantly seeks the help of constabulary to intervene in marital problems. In this regard, the involvement of women officers has added a new feature to policing. According to Sara Nelson (Chapter 19), women’s rights in Brazil are accorded little importance and women victims have had difficulty in obtaining justice through legal institutions. Working from an anthropological perspective, she describes how all-women police stations were introduced in the mid-1980s to respond more adequately to violence against women and to avoid discrimination in the traditional police settings. There are now hundreds of these stations, which have high social visibility as feminist creations. This poses a problem for the women working in these stations: they owe their roles to feminist agitation, but they must not be seen themselves as feminist agitators. To succeed in the police, they must conform to the predominant male police culture. All-women police units have also been established in Tamil Nadu, a southern Indian state. Unlike those in Brazil, the units (now numbering 180) were not established as result of feminist pressure, but in response to widespread social concern about the plight of dowry victims. Mangai Natarajan’s essay (Chapter 20) studies how this well-intentioned reform fell foul of equal opportunity legislation. Male police officers in the Tamil Nadu constabulary, angered by what they perceived as favoured treatment of women, were able to instigate court rulings in 1997 that required male and female officers to serve under identical conditions. This meant that new female recruits had to endure the rigours of paramilitary training for six years in police battalions. Consequently, in 2000, the women police in Tamil Nadu fell into two distinct cohorts: those recruited prior to 1997 who are deployed in all-women police units and those recruited in 1997 who, as a result of equal opportunity legislation, have been placed in regular police battalions. Her study reveals considerable dissatisfaction in both cohorts. Those in the battalions deeply dislike the militaristic regime and cannot wait to be assigned to regular police stations; those in the all women units have another 20 years to serve and are deeply concerned about their future and the future of the units. This story of unintended consequences demonstrates how complicated the transition to equality can be and the pitfalls along the way.

Prospects for Full Integration Research on the assimilation of women in the police forces of Western countries has suggested that women police are becoming ‘more fully integrated into the mainstream of policing’ (Heidensohn, 1992, p. 56). They are no longer confined to their own bureaus, and the roles they are asked to perform and duties required to undertake have been gradually expanding over the past two decades. The numbers of women in policing both in absolute terms and relative to men have also increased, although it is still rare for women officers to exceed 20 per cent of the total in any force. Some commentators have assumed that these trends will eventually result in the full integration of women officers in the police, so that recruitment, assignment of duties and promotions will be ‘gender-blind’. Indeed, the focus of recent discussions of women policing

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frequently concerns the most efficient means for promoting this view of integration (for example, Prenzler, 1992). In Chapter 21 Tim Prenzler and Hennessey Hayes report on a survey of police agencies in Australia concerned with key indicators of gender equity. The survey was designed to identify the nature of change in the prior decade and to test the capacity of senior management to evaluate performance. Marked differences were found between agencies in achieving progress, and these differences indicated that management polices strongly influenced outcomes. It also was apparent that a greater commitment is needed to comprehensive data collection in order to properly diagnose and remedy inequities. In fact, they found that agencies that supplied the best data also showed the most progress in integration. In Chapter 22 Frances Heidensohn provides a comparative account of women in policing in Britain, the USA and Australia. She also reviews different models of integration of women in policing and attempts to show that comparative research using these models would yield valuable insights into gender and policing. She argues that a series of common themes link the experiences of women police around the world, despite considerable difference between cultures, structures and law enforcement agencies. Despite this overall consistency, the individual careers of women officers differ significantly. She concludes that comparative research informed by the models of integration would help both the performance of agencies and the careers of individual officers. After reviewing the position of women in some European countries, Jennifer Brown (Chapter 23) provides a model of integration of women in police. This model provides a framework for studying the development process of women police around the world. Cross-cultural comparisons were made on four major themes: unsuitable jobs for women; equal opportunities; gentle touch; and desperate remedy. These themes relate to constraints that inhibit the progress of women within police forces at each one of six stages of integration (entry, separate restricted development, integration, take off, reform and tip over). According to her analysis, nowhere in the world have women has reached the tip-over stage when women play a full part in policing and achieve higher rank in greater numbers. She suggests that this stage is reached only when the representation of women reaches 25 per cent of the force. While Brown’s model appears to hold for Western societies, all sharing a common cultural heritage, it might not hold for traditional societies with very different expectations about the roles and duties of women. In Chapter 24 Mangai Natarajan examines the argument that police women in traditional societies do not aspire to be fully integrated into mainstream policing, but may prefer a more restricted and segregated role. Using data gathered through interviews and a standardized questionnaire, her longitudinal study focuses on the preferences expressed by women officers about roles and styles of policing in India and other countries. It is concluded that, while progress to full integration in traditional societies may be slower, it seems to follow the same sequence of stages found in Western society. Brown’s model of integration is generally applicable and can accommodate the findings of studies in different countries to the benefit of improved understanding and policy-making in all.

Conclusion The studies gathered together in this book amply document the need for women officers in the police and describe the many barriers they face in being fully assimilated into policing. It has

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been shown over and again that there has been a great deal of opposition to the entry of women into policing and that women are far from being fully integrated into this largely male profession all around the world. Originally, they were hired to respond to the needs of women and children encountered by the police, either as offenders or victims. But they were also regarded as having a major role in an important function of policing, namely crime prevention. The current move towards community policing in Western countries might give greater importance to this function and might speed up the process of integration (Sims et al., 2003; Miller, 1999). Whether full integration is simply a matter of time or whether it is unachievable is therefore still an open question. In conclusion, one is left with an overwhelming impression from the essays gathered together in this book that a feminist perspective, whether implicit or explicit, has dominated research on women police. Most of the studies are focused on identifying and explaining barriers to the integration of women in the police. Women are painted as victims of unjust social discrimination. There has been little discussion of the choices that women themselves make in joining the police or their choices once they have joined. Looked at objectively, it is easy to see why policing may not be particularly attractive job for women especially when compared to other jobs they could choose. Policing requires working at unsocial hours, often in isolated and sometimes dangerous and uncomfortable conditions. Furthermore, the inherent nature of the work concerns controlling and sanctioning other people. Women do not generally perceive it as a job involving pleasant social interactions or caring for other people, but as a masculine vocation, requiring aggressiveness and physical strength. According to Walker and Katz (2002), many women are reluctant to join the police for these kinds of reasons. If the job is intrinsically less appealing to women, we must recognize that much smaller numbers of women than men will seek entry to the profession. The ‘mantra’ of equal representation of men or women in policing, or any profession, does not serve either group well. Occupation must be a matter of individual choice. One cannot require men and women to want equally to enter all professions and walks of life. These issues need to be explored from the perspective of occupational psychology and, until they have been addressed in depth and integrated into an explanation of the status of women police, the literature will remain theoretically underdeveloped and unsatisfying. Of course, none of this means that when women enter the police force they can be treated differently or discriminated against. Most women who enter the force are aware of the problems involved and they like to face challenges. These women have much to offer police forces and the constituencies these serve. They can be a positive source of change and can help to modernize policing. They need to be encouraged and given fuller support both by the police administration and the public.

References Aleem, S. (1989), ‘Women in Policing in India’, Police Studies, 12, pp. 97-103. Balkin, J. (1988), ‘Why Policem en D on ’t Like P olicew om en’, Journal o f Police Science and Administration, 16 (1), pp. 29-38. Belknap, J. and Shelley, J.K. (1993), ‘The New Lone Ranger: Policewomen on Patrol’, American Journal of Police, 12 (2), pp. 47-75. Bloch, P.B. and Anderson, D. (1974), Policewomen on Patrol: Final Report, Washington, DC: Police Foundation.

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Brown, J. (1997), ‘Women in Policing: A Comparative Perspective’, International Journal of the Sociology of Law, 2 5 (1 ), p. 19. Brown, J. and Campbell, E.A. (1991), ‘Less than Equal’, Policing, 7, pp. 324-33. Brown, J. and Heidensohn, F. (2000), Gender and Policing: Comparative Perspectives, London: Macmillan. Brown, J.M. (1998), ‘Aspects o f Discriminatory Treatment o f Women Police Officers Serving in Forces in England and Wales’, British Journal of Criminology, 38, pp. 265-82. Charles, M.T. (1982), ‘Women in Policing: The Physical Aspect’, The Journal of Police Science and Administration, 10 (2), pp. 194—205. Coffey, S., Brown, J. and Savage, S. (1992), ‘Policewomen’s Career Aspirations: Some Reflections on the Role and Capabilities of Women in Policing in Britain’, Police Studies, 15 (1), pp. 13-19. Dorsey, R.R. and Giacopassi, D.J. (1986), ‘Assessing Gender Differences in the Levels o f Cynicism Among Police Officers’, American Journal of Police, 5 (1), pp. 91-112. Evans, D.H. (1980), ‘Height, Weight, and Physical Agility Requirements - Title VII and Public Safety Employment’, Journal of Police Science Administration, 8 (3), pp. 355-62. Fairchild, E.S. (1987), ‘Women Police in Weimar: Professionalism, Politics, and Innovation in Police Organizations’, Law and Society Review, 21, pp. 375-402. Felkenes, T. and Lasley, J.R. (1992), ‘Implications of Hiring Women Police Officers: Police Adminstrators’ Concerns May Not Be Justified’, Policing and Society, 3 (1 ), pp. 41-50. Fielding, N. and Fielding, J. (1992), ‘A Comparative Minority: Female Recruits to a British Constabulary Force’, Policing and Society, 2 (3), pp. 205-18. Flavin, J.M. and Bennett, R.R. (2001), ‘Police Work in the Caribbean: The Influence o f Police Strategies and Management’, Policing: An International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 24 (1), pp. 56-87. Fletcher, C. (1995), Breaking and Entering: Women Cops Talk About Life in the Ultimate Men’s Club, New York: HarperCollins. Gerber, G.L, (2001), Women and Men Police Officers: Status, Gender and Personality, Westport, CT: Praeger. Grant, D.R. (2000), ‘Perceived Gender Differences in Policing: The Impact o f Gendered Perceptions of Officer-situation “Fit”’, Women and Criminal Justice, 12 (1), pp. 53-74. Greene, H.T. and del Carmen, A. (2002), ‘Female Police Officers in Texas: Perceptions o f Colleagues and Stress’, Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management, 25, pp. 385-98. Grennan, S.A. (1987), ‘Findings on the Role of Officer Gender in Violent Encounters with Citizens’, Journal of Police Science and Administration, 15, pp. 78-85. Haar, R.N. and Morash, M. (1999), ‘Gender, Race and Strategies of Coping with Occupational Stress in Policing’, Justice Quarterly, 16, pp. 303-36. Harris, W. (1999), ‘Recruiting Women: Are We Doing Enough?’, Police, 23, pp. 18-23. Heidensohn, F. (1992), Women in Control?, New York: Oxford University Press. Heidensohn, F. (2002), ‘Why Do We Need Women in Policing? The History o f Women in Policing’, paper presented at the Third Australasian Women and Policing Conference: Women and Policing Globally, National Convention Center, Canberra, 20-23 October. Home, P. (1999), ‘Policewomen: 2000 A.D. Redux’, Law and Order, 47, pp. 52-62. Igbinovia, PE. (1987), ‘African Women in Contemporary Law Enforcement’, Police Studies, 10 (1), pp. 31-35. International Labour Organization (2000), ABC of Women Workers ’Rights and Gender Equality, Geneva: ILO. Jones, S. (1986), Police Women and Equality, London: Macmillan. Martin, S.E. (1990), ‘On the Move: The Status of Women in Policing’, Washington, DC: Police Foundation. Martin, S.E. and Jurik, N.C. (1996), Doing Justice, Doing Gender: Women in Law and Criminal Justice Occupations, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Metcalfe, B. and Gavin, D. (2002), ‘Is the Force Still With Her? Gender and Commitment in the Police’, Women in Management Review, 17, pp. 392-403. Miller, S.L. (1999), Gender and Community Policing, Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press. Natarajan, M. (1996), ‘Towards Equality: Women Police in India’, Women and Criminal Justice, 8 (2), pp. 1-18. National Center for Women and Policing (2002), ‘Equality Denied: The Status of Women in Policing: 2001’, at http://www.womenandpolicing.org.

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Pagon, M. and Lobnikar, B. (1999), ‘Reasons for Joining and Beliefs about the Police and Police Work among Slovenian Female Police Rookies’, International Journal of Police Science and Management, 2, pp. 252-66. Pelkey, W.L. and DeGrange, M.L. (1996), ‘Gender Bias in Field Training Evaluation Programs: An Exploratory Analysis’, Women and Criminal Justice, 8 (2), pp. 79-90. Poole, E.D. and Pogrebin, M.R. (1988), ‘Factors Affecting the Decision to Remain in Policing: A Study o f Women Officers’, Journal of Police Science and Administration, 16, pp. 49-55. Prenzler, T. (1992), Women in Policing: Policy Implications from the U.S. Experience, Research and Policy Paper Number 3, Brisbane, Australia: Griffith University, Centre for Crime Policy and Public Safety. Prenzler, T. (1996), ‘Rebuilding the Walls? The Impact of Police Pre-entry Physical Ability Tests on Female Applicants’, Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 7 (3), pp. 228-33. Price, B.R. (1996), ‘Female Police Officers in the United States’, in Milan Pagon (ed.), Policing in Central and Eastern Europe: Comparing Firsthand Knowledge With Experience From the West, Ljubljana: College o f Police and Security Studies, pp. 635-40. Sherman, L. (1977), ‘Policewomen Around the World’, International Review of Criminal Policy, 33, pp. 25-33. Schulz, D.M. (1995), From Social Worker to Crimeflghter: Women in the United States Municipal Policing, Westport, CT: Praeger. Sims, B., Scarborough, E.K. and Ahmad, J. (2003), ‘The Relationship Between Police Officers’ Attitudes Toward Women and Perceptions of Police Models’, Police Quarterly, 6 (3), pp. 278-97. Stevens, J.W. and Patlye, S.A. (1985), ‘The Integration of Women into the West German and United States Police Service’, International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice, 9, pp. 54— 65. Timmins, W.M. and Hainsworth, B.E. (1989), ‘Attracting and Retaining Females in Law Enforcement: Sex-based Problems o f Women Cops in 1988’, International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 33, pp. 197-205. United Nations (1985), Criminal Justice Process and Perspectives in a Changing World: The Fair Treatment of Women by the Criminal Justice System, Seventh UN Congress on the Prevention o f Crime and Treatment of Offenders, Milan, 26 August-6 September. Walker, S. and Katz, M.C. (2002), Police in America: An Introduction, (4th edn), Boston: McGraw-Hill. Wertsch, T.L. (1998), ‘Walking the Thin Blue Line: Policewomen and Tokenism Today’, Women and Criminal Justice, 9 (3), pp. 23-61. Wexler, J.G. and Logan, D.D. (1983), ‘Sources o f Stress Among Women Police Officers’, Journal of Police Science and Administration, 11, pp. 46-53. Yang, J. (1981), ‘Women in Policing: A Comparative Study of the United States and the Republic of China (Taiwan)’, Police Studies, 8, pp. 125-31.

Part I The History of Women in Policing

[1]

Preventive Justice: The Campaign for Women Police,

1910-1940 Janis A ppier

ABSTRACT. la the 1910s women police and their supporters constructed a female-gendered model o f police work known as the crime prevention model. According to this model, crime prevention is the most important function o f the police, and women are inherently better suited than men to be crime prevention officers. This modei challenged male hegemony o f the police. In the 1930s, a male-gendered model o f police work, the crime control model, emerged and re-affirmed the superiority o f “ male” characteristics and values in police work. The crime control model still dominates American police departments today.

On April 7, 192?, Lieutenant Mina C. Van Winkle, Director o f the Woman’s Bureau, Metropolitan Police Department, Washington. D .C ., went before the police trial board on the charge o f insubordination. Two weeks before she had refused to comply with an order to release immediately two girls in her custody to two men purporting to be their fathers. The girls, one fourteen years old, the other fifteen, had run away from their homes in Brooklyn, New York a few days before. While stranded in a train station in Washington, D .C ., the girls wired their fathers o f their whereabouts. Before the fathers arrived to claim their daughters, poiice detectives picked up and interrogated the girls, then turned them over to Van W inkle’s night assistant at the detention home. Shortly

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past dawn the next morning, the fathers arrived at police headquarters. The head o f the Detective Bureau ordered the girls’ release, so the night assistant telephoned Van Winkle at home to get her approval. Van Winkle refused to release the girls without first verifying the identities o f the purported fathers. Although Van Winkle soon released the girls, the fathers were furious at the delay and complained vociferously. As a result, the chief o f police charged Van Winkle with insubordination.1 In her defense, Van Winkle asserted that the Detective Bureau should never have been involved in the case at all. She cited an order issued by the chief o f police on February 25, 1922, effective March 1, whereby “ A ll matters relating to cases o f lost children and cases o f females o f whatever age . . . w ill be handled by the Woman’s Bureau exclusively and not by the Detective Bureau, as heretofore.” 2 Present at Van W inkle’s hearing before the police trial board were representatives o f sixty-two organizations o f women, drawn from all over the country. In the minds o f many o f these women, the issue at stake was not only Van W inkle’s professional reputation, but also the principles underlying the entire movement for the employment o f women police. These women feared that if Van Winkle were found guilty, the work o f women police would be severely undermined.3 Their fear was well-founded because the movement for women police arose from a particular reading o f female gender identity which had as a premise the idea that women were the necessary and natural protectors o f women and children. The charge against Van W inkle threatened to subvert this idea. That is, if the police trial board ruled that Van Winkle had been insubordinate, then the position o f women police everywhere might always be dependent on an individual policeman’s whim rather than on the recognition o f policewomen’s gender-based authority over all cases involving women and children. Thus, at the heart o f Van Winkle’s trial for insubordination lay the contested territory o f female gender identity. During the past two decades, scholars have begun to explore the construction o f gender identities. A close look at the movement for women police reveals how white middle-class women during the early twentieth century stretched the female gender role prescrip-

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tions o f late Victorian culture to include specialized police work for women. Specifically, women reformers drew upon nineteenthcentury notions o f women’s differences from men, such as women’s moral superiority and greater capacity to nurture, to argue that women could perform certain police tasks better than men could. For example, they asserted that only policewomen should handle cases involving children because women inherently knew better than men how to comfort, guide, and question an erring or abused child. Sim ilarly, they claimed that only female police officers should handle cases involving women because male police officers lacked sufficient understanding o f women’s problems and motivations. As one advocate of women police remarked in 1936, “ Paradoxically, women have been admitted to that male domain, police work, primarily because they are women."* Women reformers did not limit their case for women police to the straightforward argument that women knew better than men how to handle females and juveniles. Had they done so, they would have met less resistance. Instead, they also argued that the presence o f women on the police force would make the police more responsive to the needs o f women and children, infuse police work with values associated with women and social work (such as nurturance and morality), lift the overall intelligence level o f police officers, and create a police system that would not only detect crime, but more importantly in their view , prevent it. In short, their case for women police constituted a searching critique o f prevailing police practices and philosophy. It also provided the basis for a female-gendered model o f police work known as the crime prevention model. The crime prevention model had three major tenets: (1) police work developed to its highest form was social work; (2) crime prevention was the most important function o f the police; and (3) women were inherently better than men at preventing crime. An analysis o f the public discourse over the employment o f women police provides insight into the development and fate o f the crime prevention model. It also illustrates the ways women resisted, challenged, and modified dominant conventions underlying the male hegemony o f law enforcement. Finally, it shows how ideas about gender helped shape the direction o f police reform in the United States during the first half o f the twentieth century.

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GENDER AND THE ORIGINS OF POLICE REFORM The campaign for women police roughly spanned the years between 1910 and 1940. It was one o f many contemporaneous reform movements in which middle-class women used exalted definitions o f womanhood and motherhood to claim new roles for themselves in the public sphere as policymakers, workers, and electors. Historians have recently used the term “ matemalist” to describe the ideologies and reform agendas o f these movements. As Seth Koven and Sonya M ichel have explained, matemalist ideologies “ extended to society as a whole the values o f care, nurturance, and morality.” 5 Specifically, matemalists argued that the talents and attributes they associated with motherhood (compassion, selflessness, moral vision) were urgently needed in the public sector. This argument surfaced repeatedly in the movement for woman suffrage, as w ell as in women’s organized efforts to create state welfare policies on behalf o f women and children. W ellknown examples o f m atemalist reforms in the United States include the campaigns for mothers’ and widows’ pensions and protective labor legislation.6 Like other matemalist movements, the campaign for women police evolved from other reforms undertaken by “ organized womanhood” in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Among these reforms were the establishment o f separate women’s prisons and juvenile courts, the hiring o f police matrons, and perhaps most important, the formation o f private protective associations for women and children. In Los Angeles and Chicago, for example, the same women who spearheaded the establishment o f juvenile courts also formed juvenile protective associations to work “ upstream” from the court. The purpose o f these associations was to investigate and eliminate the social conditions that allegedly led some working-class children and young women to become involved in crime, either as victim s or as offenders. Other organizations, such as the Girls’ Protective League and Traveler’s Aid Society, offered material aid and advice to needy women and girls and were less concerned with removing the social causes o f crim e.7 Within a few years, members o f some protective organizations felt hampered by their lack o f official authority. As Louise de Koven Bow-

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en, the president o f the Juvenile Protective Association o f Chicago, explained, “ We need the police power which the city might vest in women trained for the work, giving them the authority to cope with certain dangerous situations which private organizations have tried in vain to deal.” * When de Koven Bowen spoke o f “ wom en trained in the work,” she meant women trained in social work, not police work. Prior to the 1920s, formal police training scarcely existed; nearly all police administrators expected their male recruits to learn on the job. Even when police training for men became generally available during the 1920s and 1930s, advocates o f women police still insisted that policewom en have training in social work. During the 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s, many policewomen came from graduate schools o f social work and/or had several years o f experience working in social work agencies, including private protective associations. The origins o f the movement for women police in private protective associations meant that middle-class women became active in police reform through their concern for the rights and welfare o f women and children, especially working-class women and children. In this respect, female police reformers differed significantly from their male counterparts. M iddle-class men undertook police reform primarily because they wanted to take control of the police department away from urban political machines.9 Urban political machines were associations of loosely affiliated ward organizations that garnered most o f their support from working-class immigrant communities. In return for their votes, immigrant men received important favors, such as jobs on city payrolls. By the late nineteenth century, machines had taken over the operation o f most big-city police, fire, and sanitation departments, schools, courts, and civil service com m issions. Under machine control, the police frequently allowed con artists, pickpockets, burglars, and other thieves to operate freely provided that the police and the machine received a share o f the profits. Similar arrangements existed between the police, the machine, and the owners o f illegal saloons, gambling casinos, and houses o f prostitution. Moreover, in order to help ensure the continuation of machine rule, the police routinely harassed and assaulted voters whom they believed were hostile to the machine. By the early twentieth century, the

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police possessed a well-deserved reputation for corruption, sloth, and brutality.10 Crusades to sever the ties between the police and the machine began in the late 1880s and continued intermittently through the 1920s. Historians have identified the leaders o f these crusades as native-born businessmen and professional men who feared the power o f the machine and its working-class im m igrant supporters. As Robert Fogelson has succinctly argued, “ Most reformers were convinced that the ward bosses as well as their allies in the underworld and on the police forces were out to destroy the prosperity, the security, and indeed the very soul o f urban America.” 11 In the beginning, male reformers lacked a unifying vision o f the reformed police department. However, in order to realize their political goals, male reformers had to think seriously about the functions o f die police. By 1910, male reformers generally envisioned the reformed police department as a kind o f business corporation or military body. In the words o f one male reformer, the police were a “ municipal army.” 12 Both paradigms invoked the male-dominated public worlds o f business and war. The paradigms also reflected male reformers’ desire to introduce certain salient features o f corporations and military bodies into police work, namely centralized authority and rationality. According to nineteenth-century gender beliefs, centralized authority and rationality were masculine because they demanded a radical separation o f the realm o f cognition (associated with masculinity) from the realm o f belief and feeling (associated with fem in in ity ) To paraphrase Joan Scott’s observation about French discourse over class, male reformers conceptualized police reform in terms that were not explicitly about gender, but which nevertheless reproduced historically specific definitions of m asculinity.13 Moreover, until police chiefs came under pressure from women’s groups in the 1910s to hire women police officers, police work remained an occupation held exclusively by men.

WOMEN'S EN TR Y INTO P O U C E WORK The first woman in the world to become a sworn police officer, A lice Stebbins W ells, joined the Los Angeles Police Department on

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September 12, 1910. She obtained her position after persuading colleagues in women’s clubs and social work agencies to sign a petition requesting city officials to appoint a woman officer to handle the cases o f women and children. In later years Wells liked to recall the astonished stares she received when she first told people o f her desire to become a police officer. W hile pointedly assessing her 120-pound, five-foot two-inch frame, people invariably asked, “ How could you make an arrest?” Her reply summarized the basic goal o f pioneer policewom en’s work: “ I don’t want to make arrests. I want to keep people from needing to be arrested, especially young people.” 14 W ells rarely hesitated to take full credit for beginning the movement for women police. In 1940, she wrote, “ The Police Department especially considered itself to be a man’s world, and the public so regarded it, until I stormed the fortress.” 15 W ells provided forceful leadership to the movement during the early 1910s. In 1911, less than a year after her appointment to the Los Angeles Police Department, she travelled to thirty-one cities in thirty days, promoting the idea o f policewomen in a tour organized by the Los Angeles District o f the California Federation of Women’s Clubs. The follow ing year she took a six-month leave o f absence from police work to lecture in cities throughout the United States and eastern Canada.16 To make the case for policewomen more palatable to her audiences, W ells often portrayed the women and children with whom she came in professional contact as victim s o f crime, rather than as offenders. This portrayal cast her in the motherly role o f caregiver, rather than in the unladylike role o f arresting officer. For example, she told an audience in Ottawa, Canada that most o f the women she met through her work had been deserted or beaten by their husbands.17 Sim ilarly, she told an audience in New York City that worried parents frequently sought her advice on matters involving their children. “ I had one case o f a mother whose daughter had been enticed by an evil-minded old man in the neighborhood” she recalled. “ The mother hesitated to go to the police . . . but, finding a woman on the force, she came to me and told me the whole rather ugly situation in order that the man might not be a menace to the other young girls in the neighborhood.” 18 The argument that female officers were inherently better-suited

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than male officers to handle the cases o f women and children succeeded in getting women into police work, but it fostered occupational segregation based on sex. Until the late 1960s, most policewomen’s duties revolved around women and children. Early proponents o f women police viewed this focus not as a crippling limitation, but rather as a hard-won acknowledgment from city authorities that an all-male police department could not adequately serve the interests o f women and children. As Wells bluntly told a convention o f police chiefs in 1914, “ Women and children have a right to a representation in the police department.” 19 Louise de Koven Bowen agreed. In her book published in 1914, Safeguards fo r City Youth at Work and at Play, de Koven Bowen outlined the need for women police and women jurors whenever women were arrested and tried. She also recommended that women court officials hear juvenile court cases involving girls. Underlying all de Koven Bowen’s recommendations in this regard was her belief that male hegemony over the criminal justice system oppressed women: During our years o f experience in the Juvenile Protective Association, it became increasingly evident that there was a certain steady, although perhaps unconscious discrimination against the women who are daily brought into the court. . . . From the time o f the arrest o f a woman to the final disposition o f her case she is handicapped by being in the charge o f men and surrounded by men, who naturally cannot be expected to be as sympathetic and understanding as one o f her own sex.20 In 1928, a newspaper editor applauding the appointment o f policewomen in New Haven, Connecticut used even stronger language to express the same opinion: “ It seems unthinkable that for centuries the female delinquent has been cast wholly on the mercy o f male law enforcement agencies. . . .Men have arrested her, men have prosecuted her, and men have jailed her. A t no p o in t. . .has she had the benefit o f feminine counsel or understanding.” 21 Proponents thus viewed the appointment o f women police as a public recognition o f the importance o f women’s sororal bonds. “ It takes a woman to understand a woman’s problems,” journalist Irene

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Vandyck declared in praise o f the work o f New York City policewomen in 1922.22 The pressure to hire policewomen came almost exclusively from middle-class women’s clubs and organizations.23 Typically, clubwomen invited a well-known policewoman to their town to discuss policewom en’s service. By 1915, at least sixteen American cities had appointed women police officers. Ten years later, approximately 145 American cities employed policewom en. By 1935, an estimated 850 policewomen worked in 290 communities. New York and Massachusetts went so far as to enact legislation requiring towns with populations o f 20,000 or more to employ at least one policewom an.24 WHITE SLAVERY SCARE During the 1910s and 1920s, women’s groups succeeded in obtaining women police in part because o f the white slavery scare. On the surface, the white slavery scare concerned the brutal sexual exploitation o f virginal young women. Specifically, the years between 1905 and 1915 wimessed the outpouring o f novels, newspaper reports, magazine articles, and film s about the abduction and sale o f young women for sexual purposes. These accounts generally portrayed the young women as pure-minded, naive, helpless, and weak-willed creatures who were lured by evils they did not understand. They were women who had seem ingly fallen into prostitution through unlucky circumstances and male betrayal.25 As historians John D ’Emilio and Estelle B. Freedman have noted, the white slavery scare provoked a great deal o f anti-prostitution activity on the municipal level during the Progressive Era. For example, in many cities across the nation, vice commissions formed to investigate the extent and nature o f prostitution. The investigators found prostitutes nearly everywhere they looked, in public parks, railroad stations, m ovie theatres, dance halls, restaurants, cabarets, saloons, and lodging houses.26 Women’s organizations, particularly the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (W CTU), used the findings o f vice commissions to press for laws to prosecute men who lured women into prostitution.27

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Women’s groups also campaigned for the appointment o f women police on the grounds that women would do better work than men in cleaning up vice conditions because women were the morally superior sex. Additionally, women argued that policewomen should patrol public places in order to protect young women from “ white slavers.” The strength o f these arguments for women police arose partly from the fact that police departments had a deplorable reputation for w illfully neglecting to enforce vice law s, and partly from the fact that some women reformers, notably the members o f the WCTU, view ed prostitution as the result o f men’s irresponsibility. To these reformers, asking a policeman to stamp out vice was like asking a w olf to guard sheep. Moreover, advocates o f women police argued that women were the “ natural” protectors o f women and children. Just as a mother zealously watches over her young within the hom e, the argument went, so a policewoman can watch over the young in the city. This line o f reasoning proved so persuasive that in a few cities policewomen were known as protective officers.28 However, policewom en themselves preferred to be known as crime prevention specialists. GENDER AN D CRIME PREVENTION Policewomen’s strong emphasis on crime prevention was part o f the legacy o f the private protective associations. Like the members o f protective associations, pioneer policewomen and their supporters fervently believed that women officers could discover and eliminate most o f the causes o f crime in a given neighborhood or city. Their motto, inscribed on the cover o f the Policewoman’s International Bulletin, was “ Preventive Justice.” Throughout the 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s, policewomen attempted to prevent crime by actively searching their communities for the social conditions that supposedly hid or encouraged crime, such as dark streets, certain types o f dance halls, and “ blind pigs” (places where people bought and/or drank liquor illegally). Supporters of women police were confident that by reason o f gender, education, and social background (by which they meant class), policemen could not be

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as effective as policewomen in undertaking this type o f crime prevention. One group o f researchers concluded that with regard to the investigation and correction of social conditions which make for delinquency or more serious crimes on the part o f both adults and children, most of the men in most police departments are inclined to be indifferent; nothing in their previous experience, in the curriculum o f the training school, or in their experience as police officers gives them the needed social background or social interest necessary for intelligent investigation o f the cause and prevention o f bad social conditions. It is therefore generally found expedient . . . to bring to bear the point o f view o f social service workers and particularly o f women employed as police officers.29 Nearly all crime prevention activities undertaken by policewomen revolved around the creation o f a crime-free public environment for women and children. Policewomen in plain clothes regularly patrolled certain public areas, such as theatres, amusement parks, and railway stations, with an eye towards detecting and interrupting illegal behavior by or against women and children. They also routinely looked for evidence o f offenses against middle-class moral standards, such as the sale of allegedly obscene literature and erotic styles o f dancing. In many respects they were public chaperones, a role that endeared them to their m iddle-class, and probably middle-aged, supporters during the 1910s and early 1920s.30 The idea that the police ought to be involved in crime prevention had long been a theme among American prison reformers, but prior to the turn o f the century, police administrators themselves rarely considered it.31 As the Progressive Era advanced, however, faith in the new social sciences, together with the general climate o f positivist opinion, infiltrated some police departments. Beginning in the early 1910s, a few male police reformers, notably August Vollmer, enthusiastically took up the idea that the causes o f crime could be discovered and eliminated through social-scientific police work. Consequently, the annual conventions o f chiefs o f police became the scene o f numerous pronouncements on the primary

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importance o f crime prevention. For example, in 1911, Michael J. Regan, Chief o f Police in Buffalo, New York announced, “ The primary effort o f a Police Force properly conducted should be to prevent crime. Many Police Officers labor under the mistaken idea that their first duty is to arrest the criminal and see that he is properly punished.” 32 The next year, Chief Joseph M. Quigley o f Rochester, New York made the same point: “ The first duty o f the police is to prevent crime; the second the detection and apprehension o f criminals if crime has been committed.” 33 In 1915, Chief o f Police James L. Beavers o f Atlanta, Georgia proclaimed that “ the first duty o f a police department is the prevention o f crim e.” Another chief, Walter J. Petersen o f Oakland, California argued that the new emphasis on crime prevention was part o f a “ broad, sympathetic spirit o f humanity” overtaking the country. He also explained in unvarnished detail how this new spirit necessarily entailed changes in police methods: “ We police chiefs must in great measure forget the thumb screw, the illegal third degree, the too ready use o f force o f an unlawful kind in the conduct o f our departments.” 34 Despite some police chiefs’ newfound enthusiasm for crime prevention, prior to 1930 few o f them referred to women police when they discussed, at their yearly meetings, the various ways a police department could prevent crime.35 Their relative silence on this subject is remarkable given that the first generation o f women were then entering police work as crime prevention specialists. Overall, the chiefs’ silence constituted a denial o f policewomen’s gender-based claim to legitim acy, for throughout the movement for women police, proponents repeatedly invoked women’s gender identity to justify their employment in crime prevention. For example, a journalist sympathetic to women police argued in 1912 that “ women w ill work harder than men to protect and save and w ill think less o f punishment in dealing with those who are destroying 136 In 1913, another reporter said, themselves and others. . . “ The appointment o f women in the police force . . . throws the emphasis upon sympathy and understanding instead of mere muscle.” 37 The comments quoted above are unusually explicit examples o f the legitim izing function o f gender. As a rule, proponents o f worn-

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en police did not spell out the link between specific gender characteristics and types o f police duties. Instead, they took for granted the public’s knowledge o f gender roles and built their case for women police accordingly. For example, in a speech given in 1913 before the City Club o f New York, A lice Stebbins Wells flatly stated, “ The woman officer is an emphasis upon the prevention spirit o f police w ork.” 3®Twenty-two years later, journalist Dorothy Thomas made a similar observation: “ Preventive work is the crying need-and it is a field in which women may most effectively serve.” 39 Martha Strayer, a writer who attended a regional conference o f policewomen in 1927, likew ise reported, “ Protective and preventive work is the police function o f their sex, everybody agreed.” 40 Examples abound o f this type o f abbreviated reference to a presumed correlation between women and crime prevention. They are particularly plentiful in discussions o f “ predelinquents” (children whose behavior allegedly predisposed them to a life of crime). For instance, August Vollmer claimed that “ inherent qualities possessed by women only peculiarly fit them for service among the pre-delinquents.” 41 The “ inherent qualities” to which Vollmer referred were normative standards o f gender derived, for the most part, from nineteenth-century ideologies o f dom esticity.42 These standards include, but are not limited to, women’s allegedly more compassionate tender nature, finer moral sensibilities, and greater affinity with children. The concept o f the “ maternal instinct” was particularly important because a great deal o f crime prevention work revolved around children. So tight was the fit between the idealized policewoman and the idealized mother that some descriptions o f policewomen’s work could easily be mistaken for an excerpt from nineteenth-century prescriptive literature on the joys and responsibilities o f motherhood. For example, in 1926 August Vollmer proclaimed that a policewoman could render invaluable services to children by “ correcting bad habits, changing the disposition when this is necessary, developing the right sort o f attitudes, cultivating wholesome tastes, strengthening the conscience, and inculcating personal, social and religious ideals, [and] creating desirable virtues and sentim ents.” 43 A striking example o f how proponents o f women police incorpo-

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rated and subtly modified female gender role prescriptions is Rhoda J. M iliken’s analysis o f policewomen published in 1944 entitled “ We D on’t Carry N ightsticks!” M iliken argued forcefully that compared to policem en, policewomen have “ a greater unwillingness to become cogs in a machine which sometimes causes more wreckage than it gives protection to a community.” Drawing upon the belief that women are inherently less interested than men in abstract principles and more interested in particularities, she continued, “ It is not, I think, claiming too much for them to say that the women have been more concerned with the methods o f doing their job in so far as those methods affect the people involved in the process o f enforcing the law .” 44 Throughout the 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s, discourse over the employment o f women police stretched the female gender role prescriptions o f the late nineteenth century. In fact, much o f the rhetoric used to justify women’s increasing involvement in civic affairs during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries applied especially w ell to policewomen. More than one writer portrayed policewom en as the ideal municipal housekeepers. In 1927, Police Commissioner Louis Brownlow o f the District o f Columbia took the analogy to absurd lengths. He opened a discussion o f the merits o f policewomen with the comment, “ The policewoman after all is a woman and she believes in house cleaning.” He next discussed modern ways o f cleaning a house, claiming that women bought vacuum cleaners when they grew tired o f nagging their husbands to beat carpets. He then compared policewomen with vacuum cleaners: Women have been nagging at men for lo! these many years to do some cleaning up around town. The best they could do was to stir the comfort-loving critters into a spasmodic effort at reform every once in a while, after which they would relapse into the even enjoyment o f their ways. Tired o f that, the women have taken heart from the vacuum cleaner experience and have put in policewomen to keep the town clean right along. The way they go at it is different from the spasmodic raiding, haling into court and wholesale fining that the policemen used to do, as is the action o f the vacuum cleaner on the

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liv in g room rags from the way father use to lambast the carpet in the backyard with a baseball bat.45

Brownlow’s analogy underscores a key point, namely the general agreement among proponents o f women police that policewomen not only had a mission different from policemen’s, they also had a different methodology. Whereas the popular image o f policemen depicted brawny, thick-skinned, and thick-headed brutes making frequent arrests through application o f muscle and official power, policewom en cultivated an image o f themselves as intelligent, sympathetic caseworkers, finding non-coercive solutions to the problems o f crime. In a comparison o f their different methods of work, a newspaper editor remarked, “ The policewoman wants to advise, to aid, to find employment for those thrown into her hands, and she has an acute realization that often an actual arrest is the most destructive possible step.” 46 In theory, policewomen’s methods were shaped equally by acquired attributes, namely their training in social casework, and “ inherited” attributes, namely their womanly compassion, sense o f disinterested service to others, maternal instinct, and flair for detail. An analysis o f descriptions o f policewom en’s work published from the 1910s through 1940 reveals that policewomen engaged almost exclusively in interpersonal, relational work.47 That is, they routinely undertook tasks that demanded a high level o f affectivity, empathy, attention to detail, and cooperation with others. They specialized in such duties as comforting lost children, answering letters o f inquiry regarding missing persons, interviewing female and juvenile victims o f crime (especially sex crimes), making referrals to social work agencies, giving advice to parents regarding troublesome children, and handling domestic relations cases. Prior to the hiring o f policewomen, policem en had performed these tasks. Consequently, policewomen not only carved out a new area o f police work in crime prevention, claiming that they were by nature better suited than men to undertake it, they also took over from men certain kinds o f police duties, those allegedly requiring a woman’s sympathetic touch. As a result, the gendered representation o f police work changed. Specifically, the entry o f women into police work changed policing from an occupation that was pre-

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sumed to be sex-specific (only men could be police officers) to an occupation with an array o f gender-linked functions. The process whereby police work changed can be partly discerned by an examination o f the ways proponents o f women police presented their arguments. Implicit in their speeches and writings was an expanded, but bifurcated definition o f police work: men are best suited for the detection o f crime and die arrest of criminals, while women are best suited for the prevention o f crime and the protection o f women and children. This new definition challenged the old by introducing a new pair o f oppositions. Hence, beneath the surface o f public discourse on women police (which, as we have seen, included police chiefs’ silence on policewomen’s crime prevention work), two contests were taking place: a contest over a new role for women in the public sphere, and a contest over the meaning and direction o f police reform. W hile proponents o f women police fought hard to introduce a new m eaning o f police work, many male administrators and reformers fought equally as hard, albeit sometimes through silence, to retain control.48 Seen in the context o f a battle over the meaning of police work, police chiefs’ persistent refusal to engage in a dialogue about policewom en makes sense. In part their silence sprang from the fact that most chiefs hired women only in response to outside pressure. However, their silence also sprang from their own, frequentlyrepeated acknowledgment during the 1910s and early 1920s that crime prevention was the primary duty o f police departments. Even if this acknowledgment were only lip service, undertaken in a fit o f reformist sentiment directly attributable to the pervasive influence o f Progressive opinion, the chiefs drew the line between indulging in that type o f lip service and going so for as to discuss among themselves the contribution women were making toward preventing crime. The stakes were simply too high. If preventing crime were indeed the primary duty o f die police, and if women were indeed inherently better than men at crime prevention, then men would automatically be consigned to second-rate status within the police department. Most police chiefs and male reformers would not feel comfortable discussing policewom en’s work until the early 1930s when a male-gendered definition o f police work began to emerge.

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Policewomen themselves understood the threat they posed to policem en. Leading policewomen, notably Wells and Van Winkle, repeatedly stressed the idea that policewom en did not intend to take over any police function that policemen already ably performed. In the first speech a policewoman ever gave to the International Association o f Chiefs o f Police, W ells said: We should understand thoroughly that the policewoman is not going to take the place o f the policeman. She is not going to antagonize him in any way or to displace him. She is not going to do any work that the policeman can do as well or better, but to do those things he should not be expected to do but which he now does the best he ca n /9 The same, belabored point appeared in nearly every speech policewomen gave to the assembled chiefs in the 1910s and 1920s. It also surfaced in countless journal articles about policewomen. For example, in 1927, the authors o f an exhaustive study o f policewomen concluded, “ There is a considerable field in which women can do better police work than men. There is another-and larger-field in which men can do better police work than women.’’ 30 That same year, an editorial in the Policewoman’s International Bulletin repeated the argument. However, the editor took such pains to explain the differences between the work o f policewomen and policemen that she appeared more wistful than confident: “ It was a long time before police officials realized that women were not competing with men-that as policewomen they were making a contribution to police service such as men were not making, namely, the program o f preventive-protective work.” 51 WOM AN’S BUREAUS Policewomen were eager to distinguish their work from that o f policemen. In city after city, proponents o f women police urged city authorities to appoint not just one policewoman, but several, and to consolidate policewomen’s work within a separate woman’s bureau. The o rg anization o f woman’s bureaus in police departments during the 1910s and early 1920s marks the crest o f the wave o f

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separate female institution building begun in the nineteenth century.® In Los Angeles, for example, policewoman Aletha Gilbert conceived o f the idea o f a new division o f policewomen called the City Mother’s Bureau. She intended the bureau to offer free, confidential advice to women on domestic matters, such as desertion, nonsupport, battery, and unruly children. Gilbert persuaded Chief o f Police Charles E. Sebastian to appoint her as head o f the new division and to create a civilian board o f advisors composed o f nine representatives o f local women’s clubs and organizations. Gilbert was thereafter known as the City Mother o f Los A ngeles, a title she held from 1914 until her retirement in 1929.® The Woman’s Bureau o f the New York Police Department, established in 1925, operated in much the same way. Its purpose was “ to provide a central office, where women and girls seeking aid, advice and assistance relating to police service may apply and discuss their problems and troubles with women officers.” 54 The unspoken assumption behind the establishment o f woman’s bureaus was that women and children would voluntarily go to policewomen for help in personal matters. To make it easier for those seeking their advice, policewomen in a few large cities convinced administrators to locate the woman’s bureau in a building outside the police station. As Gilbert explained in 1914, “ I am purposely establishing headquarters [of the City Mother’s Bureau] away from the police station . . . [because] so many women and girls object to calling there.” ® A writer for the Journal o f Social Hygiene praised the location o f the Los Angeles City Mother’s Bureau, commenting that “ the office o f the Bureau is located away from the other departments o f the city administration . . . [and] is practically as quiet and unobtrusive as a private hom e.” ® In New York City, the Woman’s Precinct operated for a short tim e in an abandoned police station which policewomen redecorated extensively in an effort to make it look less like a police department and more like a private home. A New York journalist enthused over the “ colorful curtains at the windows, and colorful cushions and easy chairs and couches.” ® A photograph o f the interior o f the Los Angeles City Mother’s Bureau reveals a similarly homey atmosphere: large wicker chairs with flowered seat cushions and a vase o f fresh flowers on a small desk.®

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Leading policewom en believed, and probably rightly so, that women and children would feel more comfortable in a home-like setting than a bureaucratic or institutional one. The heartfelt enthusiasm that some policewomen felt for the successful creation o f a genteel, home-like atmosphere in woman’s bureaus comes across clearly in a letter Van Winkle wrote when she visited the Netherlands in 1923: When we reached Amsterdam w e came to a realization o f almost perfection in the housing o f the policewomen. Their work was done in a private dw elling house. Nice curtains were at the windows, good furniture, flowers on the desk, and over all a fine spirit. There was plenty o f light, sunshine and fresh air. The windows were clean and large. . . . To us it seemed as though we had arrived at some religious shrine by contrast with some o f the American headquarters which are unsuitable and badly kept.39 The physical separation o f woman’s bureaus from police stations, as well as the deliberate re-creation o f a home-like atmosphere, attests to pioneer policewom en’s desire to distance themselves from the work, and workplace, o f policemen. It also suggests that policewomen were aware, however sublim inally, that by contriving to make woman’s bureaus look like private homes, they were re-creating in the public sphere women’s traditional base o f power. Moreover, Van W inkle’s comparison o f the woman’s bureau in Amsterdam to a religious shrine underscores the continued vitality o f the middle-class ideology o f domesticity which idealized the home as a physical and spiritual refuge from the cares o f a material world. Policewomen and their supporters reinterpreted this ideology in terms o f what they wanted to accomplish. Essentially, they envisioned woman’s bureaus as the temporary refuge o f the city’s troubled women and children, a place where women could find a network o f support and advice open to them twenty-four hours a day. In sum, pioneer policewomen intended woman’s bureaus to extend the idealized female world o f nurture into the criminal justice system. Policewomen and their supporters succeeded in establishing

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woman’s bureaus under the direction o f a woman supervisor in comparatively few police departments. In most cities, policewomen were scattered throughout the precincts and/or were answerable to a male supervisor other than the chief. Leading policewomen disliked these practices intensely and advised against them at every opportunity. They claimed that scattering policewomen throughout the city lessened the chances that policewomen could effectively carry out their special duties.® They also claimed that policemen made poor supervisors o f policewomen. For example, in her book entitled Women Police (written under the auspices o f the International Association of Policewom en), Chloe Owings argued for the establishment o f female-headed woman’s bureaus. She quoted excerpts from a study that concluded that the woman’s bureaus in Detroit and Washington, D .C . were successful because their female directors were free to select their own personnel and implement their own programs of preventive work. Then Owings ominously stated, “ In the United States each community must decide for itself whether or not it desires to see its police department remain a purely punitive agency or develop into a social instrument for the prevention o f delinquency.” 61 Owings thus strongly implied that a purely punitive police department was one that lacked a femaleheaded woman’s bureau. THE QUESTION OF UNIFORMS Nowhere is the link between gender identity and the movement for women police more apparent than in the discourse over uniforms. For the first quarter century that women worked as police officers (1910-1935), nearly all American police departments forbade policewomen to wear uniforms. This policy did not upset policewom en, for they and their supporters had their own reasons for agreeing with it. Yet despite a consensus o f opinion among policewom en, police chiefs, and police reformers on this issue, the idea o f a woman wearing a police uniform generated scornful comment and stereotyped caricature throughout the 1910s, 1920s, and early 1930s. For example, in 1910 cartoonists responded to the appointment o f W ells to the Los Angeles Police Department by

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depicting a large, brawny woman with her hair pulled tightly back, wearing a severely-cut uniform, brandishing a huge club over the head o f a small, cowering man. During the next twenty-five years, as hundreds o f women entered police work, similar cartoons appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines. Most featured hatchet-faced matrons o f m assive proportions, dressed in paramilitary costume, carrying clubs or guns. One advocate o f women police, Clarence B. Smith o f the N ew York Bureau o f Municipal Research, claimed in 1922 that cartoonists who lampooned policewomen in this way had seriously impeded the movement for women police in the United States. “ N evertheless,” he averred, “ it should be noted that these thoughtless critics were unerring in their instinctive ridicule o f the uniformed policewom an.” Referring to the recent dismissal o f policewom en from the London Metropolitan Police, Smith continued, “ It may therefore be the very fact that women patrols of London wear the police uniform, together with other outward signs and badges o f authority, [that] influenced the Parliamentary Committee in its far-reaching conclusion.” ® When Smith referred to the “ outward signs and badges o f authority” worn by London policewom en, he was not alluding to weapons. Neither American nor British policewomen routinely carried guns or billy clubs during the 1910s, 1920s, and early 1930s, even though cartoons o f uniformed policewomen usually portrayed them as fully armed as policem en. But unlike uniforms, weaponry never became an issue in the movement for women police. Apparently the thought o f routinely arming a woman was so absurd or alarming that it never attracted much attention. Uniforms were a different matter, how ever, because they did not denote masculinity and raw power as unambiguously as guns and clubs did. Moreover, no one seriously proposed dressing a policewoman exactly like a policeman, in regulation pants and shirt; even the cartoons o f uniformed policewom en depicted them wearing severely-cut dresses. Nevertheless, even this mild form o f crossdressing excited a great deal o f negative comment because o f the symbolic importance o f dress in maintaining gender distinctions and gender hierarchy. The discourse over policewom en’s uniforms reflects two levels o f opposition, one widely recognized and discussed, the other

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seldom openly acknowledged. The first involved the kind o f work policewomen did. Unlike a policeman on his beat, a policewoman was supposed to patrol public areas inconspicuously. According to policewoman Helen D . Pigeon, policewomen in plain clothes were often able to “ secure evidence hidden from the man in uniform .” ® In this respect, policewom en’s duties resembled those o f male plainclothes detectives. Additionally, whenever policewomen in public interceded in the lives o f women or children, they were expected to do so without drawing undue attention to the matter. Decades before sociologists discovered labeling theory, policewom en and their supporters claimed that the experience of being arrested and transported to jail was so stigmatizing (especially to women and children) that it frequently led to a massive loss o f self-esteem and the beginnings' o f a criminal career. As one policewoman explained, “ I do not believe in humiliating the woman I have arrested by forcing her to accompany a uniformed official through the streets, showing the world that she is under arrest and on her way to ja il.” 64 Pioneer policewomen and their supporters also shunned uniforms because they knew that police uniforms provoke resentment and fear. For example, Mary Jane Spurlin, a former judge in Portland, Oregon, asserted in 1935 that whenever policewomen talked with the parents o f troublesome children, the fact that they were women in street dress was a decided advantage: “ Since they are not in uniform there seems to be less resentment than if a patrolman made the call, and they are able to gain the parents’ confidence.” 65 Van Winkle agreed with Spurlin. She owned, but rarely wore, a uniform. “ Mothers take me into their confidence in plain clothes,” she commented, “ but the uniform seems to frighten them .” She later added, “ There is a peculiar psychology connected with the uniform that in a large number o f cases inspires fear and distrust, and I find I am better able to . . . discharge my duties conscientiously when I am dressed as an ordinary busmess woman. . . . Van W inkle’s belief that she could not perform her work as conscientiously in uniform as in plain clothes illustrates how potent a symbol o f power and coercion the uniform was. Because Van W inkle, like other pioneer policewomen, defined policewom en’s work as preventive/protective, rather than detective/coercive, she

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did not feel she was being altogether true to her ideals when she wore the outward symbol o f coercion. She also admitted, however, that when she was dressed in ordinary clothes, she obtained confessions more easily than when she was in uniform .44 The second level o f opposition to uniforms revolved around gender relations. Police uniforms were, and are, a universally understood symbol o f the coercive power o f the state over life, liberty, and property.47 For many Americans, the idea of a woman wearing a police uniform subverted the w hole purpose o f the uniform and kindled doubts about gender roles. Moreover, as the unflattering cartoons o f policewomen attest, uniformed policewomen challenged gender hierarchy and disrupted fixed notions of how women should appear in public. The threat that uniformed policewomen presented to the stability o f gender roles can be inferred from the remarks made by the chief o f police o f Chicago in 1928. Referring to Europe, he sneered, “ Over there they put their women in uniform and send them out on beats just like the men. That’s ridiculous! You might just as soon send out so many children.’’ ® His contempt for uniformed policewom en may have masked a secret fear that policewomen might perform some police functions as well as policemen did. Policewom en’s rejection o f uniforms formed part o f their attempt to create an occupational identity separate from that o f policemen. It also reflected their fervent wish to avoid appearing as if they were competing with policemen. However, in this respect, policewomen’s opposition to uniforms may have provoked policemen’s ill-w ill because plainclothes duty has always meant superior status. Specifically, some policemen may have deeply resented policewomen’s automatic exemption from wearing uniforms because the most sought-after position in police departments, that o f detective, did not and does not require the routine wearing o f a uniform.49 B eginning in the mid-1920s, a few police departments began to require policewom en to wear uniforms on certain ceremonial occasions, such as parades. These uniforms were not always a feminine version o f the men’s uniforms; that is, they were not made o f the same blue or black fabric used for men’s uniforms, nor were they decorated with the same buttons and insignia. For example, the first uniforms worn by Los Angeles policewom en were plain,

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white, nurse-type dresses.70 Since few occupations have been as sex-linked as nursing, or as rigidly subordinate to a male-dominated profession, the new uniforms sent a clear message regarding Los Angeles policewomen’s subordinate status within the department. Police administrators w ell understood the intimidatory power of the uniform. They also understood, and thereby knew how to exploit, the intricate relationship between the power o f the state as materially represented by a uniformed police officer and the multiple factors that determined the relative status o f various groups within the social hierarchy. For example, in the summer o f 1935 the New York City Police Department issued uniforms to some o f its policewomen for the first tim e. However, the administrators allowed the policewomen to wear the uniforms only “ around prisons and occasionally on Coney Island beach patrol, where an agglomeration o f foreign elements makes visible authority desirable.” 71 In other words, the race, class, and ethnic characteristics of “ foreign elem ents” made permissible the temporary empowerment by uniform o f some policewomen on public patrol. POLICEWOMEN/POLICEMEN

RELATIONS

Once women officers dressed in uniforms, their outward appearance bore the unmistakable stamp o f police authority, and they no longer looked like social workers. Nevertheless, by reasons o f class, education, experience, and their own professed goals, pioneer policewomen thought o f themselves, and were thought o f by policem en, as social workers. The movement for women police was therefore not only a sustained campaign on the part of women to invade and transform a male institution, it was also an intrusion by members o f one occupation into the daily working lives o f the members o f another occupation. Understandably, many policemen resented the intrusion. In 1921, the Executive Committee o f the International Association o f Chiefs o f Police went so far as to warn American police departments that unless they improved their performance, social workers might take over police work.72 Even when considered in this light, however, the dynamics o f gender intrude because the occupations o f social worker and police officer

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were (and to a large degree, still are) strongly sex-linked. Plainly stated, police officers were men, and to a slightly lesser extent, social workers were women. Marked class differences between men and women police heightened tensions further. Policewomen were predominantly high-school graduates from the middle class (some held college and advanced degrees), while policemen were predominantly members o f the working class whose formal education ended with grade school. Given their differences, it is not surprising that mutual hostility flourished between male and female officers. Occasionally, policemen and policewomen expressed their antagonism in gender-specific terms. For example, policemen sometimes spoke disparagingly o f policewom en’s “ sob-sister” approach to criminals. Similarly, a proponent o f women police claimed in 1928 that because every policeman was first and foremost a man, he could not avoid treating female suspects brutally: “ Not that the policeman was deliberately brutal; b u t . . . he partook o f the inevitable attributes o f mere man and was incorrigibly blind.” 73 Overall, however, the flow o f mutual criticism between policewomen and policemen involved a dense tangle o f accusations involving class background, education, experience, occupational standards, and competing beliefs about gender roles. Often the criticism was veiled, but it always carried die speaker’s sense o f superiority. For instance, Van Winkle once claimed that wherever woman’s bureaus existed, they brought about “ a better and more intelligent attitude on the part o f policemen.” In a similar vein, Edith Abbott warned that “ the work of the policewoman certainly can not be adequately performed by persons who have no more education than most o f the men now filling positions in the police department.” 74 Policemen returned the attack on their intelligence and comparatively low level o f formal education by suggesting that college-educated policewomen were eggheads. “ W e may not have any university educated women in our department,” a St. Louis police chief acknowledged in 1930, “ but we have real trained police women who possess good common horse sen se.” He added that he consistently resisted pressure to place a woman in charge o f the St. Louis Woman’s Bureau because he wanted his policewomen “ to continue doing real police duty, and it is doubtful if a social worker could supplant a trained

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and experienced policeman and obtain results as satisfactory.” 75 In their defense, policewomen sometimes portrayed male officers as heavy-handed, ill-trained creatures who at best bungled situations calling for a woman’s touch: Had a uniformed man approached Sophia, barely 14, when she was loitering at Broadway and 23rd in New York one midnight he might conceivably have frightened her into a lie and [into] the car o f the man who had been driving round and round the block-in low gear when he passed her. But a policewoman learned that she had run away from a small Pennsylvania town, sent her to respectable lodging for the night, and back home in the m orning.76

OPPOSITION TO WOMEN POLICE Notwithstanding many scattered examples o f policem en’s hostility, opposition to women police rarely found its way into print. U sually, opponents did not have to air their view s in public, they only had to stand fast against change. Some police commissioners and chiefs refused outright to hire women police, while others shunted women officers into clerical jo b s.77 Consequently, the historian looking to reconstruct the arguments o f the opposition has to be guided not by what was said specifically against policewomen, but rather by the rise o f competing models o f police work that pointedly minimized or ignored die role o f policewomen. Here the evidence is plentiful. In brief, the years between the mid-1920s and 1945 witnessed the emergence and elaboration o f a male-gendered model o f police work known as the crime-control model. According to this model, the police officer was a crime fighter extraordinaire, a seasoned, well-armed, professional soldier in a savage war on crime. The implications o f this development for policewomen were plain: women could not be soldiers. In the past fifteen years, historians have examined the rise o f the crime-control model o f police work and the militarization o f American police departments. For example, Eric Monkkonen has analyzed the evolution o f police functions and the changing nature o f

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police work during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He notes that at the close o f the nineteenth century, American police departments jettisoned many tasks unrelated to crime, such as the provision o f beds for homeless men. The result, he believes, was a gradual change in the nature o f police work from an emphasis on class control to an emphasis on crime control. In his opinion, the new emphasis on crime control was “ doomed to failure, for it was the one thing at which the police had never been especially successful.” 18 Samuel Walker has also looked closely at the emergence o f the crime-control model o f police work. In his study of police reform, Walker asserts that two competing models o f police work evolved during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, an efficiency/managerial model and a social-service/crim e prevention model. During the 1930s, he observes, the social-service/crim e prevention model “ fell by the wayside and was almost completely replaced by the image o f the police as a crime-fighting agency.” 19 He claims that long-term trends toward managerial efficiency brought about the decline o f the social-service/crim e prevention model, but his analysis focuses almost exclusively on die role o f FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. In brief, he argues that during the 1930s Hoover intentionally publicized false crime statistics in order to convince the American public that a wave o f crime threatened to engulf the nation. Hoover’s plan was to create public demand for an enlarged FBI, and it worked. Crime and its control seized the public’s imagination, and despite the repeated assurances o f sociologists that no crime wave existed, Americans demanded a war on criminals. According to Walker, Hoover’s machinations were the catalyst that brought about the militarization o f American police departments. Walker thus recognizes the existence o f competing models o f police work during the early twentieth century, but he portrays the triumph o f the crime-control model as the natural result o f long-term trends toward managerial efficiency, pushed to their extreme by a manipulative Hoover. Although both these interpretations contain important insights, they ignore the dynamics o f gender and thereby miss a vital theme. Shorn o f its gender dimensions, the crime-control model appears to have gained ascendancy and legitim acy through consensus and

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a bureaucratic version o f the law o f inertia. For example, Monkkonen argues that police functions narrowed to a focus on crime control during the early twentieth century partly because o f “ the general spatial reintegration and centralization o f increasingly specialized city services and administration’’.80 He does not mention the movement for women police, and he views crime prevention as an undesirable facet o f the crime-control model o f police w ork.81 The crime-control model o f police work was firmly in place by the late 1940s; its tenets would not be seriously questioned for twenty years. The crime-control model succeeded in part because it re-established the male, working-class subculture within the police department. It did not, o f course, rid police departments o f every middle-class policewoman, but it reaffirmed the superiority o f traditionally male characteristics and values, namely aggression, dominance, strength, and toughness.82 The feet that police historians have glossed over the distinctively masculine character o f the crime-control model serves to emphasize the invisibility o f gender in history. It also underscores how comprehensively crime control triumphed over crime prevention as an organizing principle o f police work. CONCLUSION Police departments throughout the country continued to employ women officers during the 1940s and post-World War II era, but the movement for women police was dead. Even during the manpower shortage o f World War II, when many women moved into occupations previously considered exclusively male, the number o f policewomen did not increase significantly. Women police and their supporters conceived and articulated the campaign for women police in gender-specific terms because normative standards o f gender had traditionally excluded women from police work. By directly and consciously resisting male hegemony o f law enforcement, women reformers broke with the tradition which held that policing was a public matter under the exclusive control o f men. In their view , the maintenance o f social order depended upon the actions and wisdom of city mothers, as w ell as

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(or even in the place of) the actions and wisdom o f city fathers. However, once women reformers cast their arguments in genderspecific terms, it virtually guaranteed the eventual appearance o f an antithetical, male-gendered model o f police work. This was the case because women’s crime-prevention model reversed gender relations by proclaiming policewomen’s work and women’s values more important and valuable than policem en’s work and men’s values. O f course, the crime-prevention model never achieved the degree o f dominance over police work enjoyed by its successor. Nevertheless, it gained sufficient numbers o f adherents to pose a threat to male control o f police work and the stability o f gender relations. ENDNOTES 1. “ A Policewoman on Trial,” Survey, 15 April 1922, pp. 69-70. 2. Ibid., p. 69. 3. Ibid. 4. Josephine Nelson, “ On the Policewoman’s ‘Beat,’” Independent Woman, May 1936, p. 138. 5. Seth Koven and Sonya Michel, “ Womanly Duties: Matemalist Politics and the Origins o f Welfare States in France, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States, 1880-1920,” American H istorical Review 95 (October 1990): 1079, 1085. 6. Ibid., p. 1077. Nancy F. Cott discusses arguments based on women’s differences from men in the nineteenth-century woman movement in The Grounding o f M odem Feminism, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987), especially pp. 19-20, 30. 7. Chloe Owings, Women Police (New York: Frederick H. Hitchcock, 1925), pp. 212-215. 8. Louise de Koven Bowen, Safeguards fo r City Youth at Work and at Play (New York: Macmillan Company, 1914), p. 48. 9. See, for example, Robert M. Fogelson, Big-City Police (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1977), pp. 17-21, 67-74; Samuel Walker, A Critical History o f Police Reform: The Emergence o f Professionalism (Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath, 1977), pp. 24-31; Eric Monkkonen, Police in Urban America, 18601920 (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1981), pp. 42-44, 150; and Jay Stuart Berman, Police Administration and Progressive Reform: Theodore Roosevelt as Police Commissioner o f New York (New York: Greenwood Press, 1987). With the exception o f Walker, who notes that the pressure to hire policewomen came from women, these historians make no distinction between the

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efforts o f male and female police reformers. They also overlook the gender implications o f competing models o f police work. 10. Fogelson, Big-City Police , pp. 17-24, 32-33; Walker, Critical History, pp. 15-17. 11. Fogelson, Big-City Police , p. 56. 12. Unidentified New York City alderman quoted by Fogelson, Big-City Police , p. 54. Walker discusses how the political goals o f police reformers forced the reformers to redefine the role o f police in Critical History. 13. Joan Wallach Scott, Gender and the Politics o f History (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986), p. 48. 14. Alice Stebbins Wells, “ Personal History o f Los Angeles’ First Policewoman,” Los Angeles Police Associations, Bulletin, October 1940, p. 5. 15. Ibid. 16. Ibid., p. 10; “ Famous Policewoman Urges Prevention of Crime,” New York Times, 22 December 1912, sec. 5, p. 13. 17. “ Many Reasons for Women on Police Forces,” Ottawa Free Press , 17 January 1913. Scrapbook in the possession of the Wells family, Long Beach, California. 18. “ Famous Policewoman Urges Prevention o f Crime,” sec. 5, p. 13. 19. Alice Stebbins Wells, untitled speech. International Association o f Chiefs o f Police, Proceedings, 21st Annual Convention, 1914, p. 129. Hereinafter proceedings o f the International Association o f Chiefs o f Police will be cited as follows: IACP, Proceedings (followed by year). 20. De Koven Bowen, Safeguards for City Youth, pp. 154-155. The idea that the criminal justice system discriminated against women was not new. It had surfaced in the nineteenth century as part o f the movement for separate prisons for women. See, Estelle B. Freedman, Their Sisters' Keepers: Women's Prison Reform in America, 1830-1930 (Ann Arbor: University o f Michigan Press, 1981), pp. 58-59. 21. New Haven, Connecticut newspaper editorial quoted in “ Progress in New Haven,” Policewoman's International Bulletin 4 (September 1928): 6. 22. Irene Vandyck, “ No Man’s Land in Police Work,” Police Journal (May 1922): 17. 23. Accounts o f policewomen stress the key role o f clubwomen. See, for example, Mina C. Van Winkle, “ Women Police and General Social Welfare,” IACP, Proceedings, 1920, p. 53; another speech with the same title by Van Winkle, IACP, Proceedings, 1921, p. 87; Owings, Women Police , pp. xiv, 97, 103-104. 24. Statistics for 1915 and 1925 in Owings, Women Police , pp. 104, 121; statistic for 1935 quoted by Nelson, “ On the Policewoman’s ‘Beat,’” p. 138; Arthur W. Sjoquist, Los Angeles Police Department Commemorative Book, 18691984 (Los Angeles: Los Angeles Police Revolver and Athletic Club, Inc., 1984) p. 148. 25. For recent discussions o f the white slavery scare, see John D ’Emilio and Estelle B. Freedman, Intimate Matters: A History o f Sexuality in America (New

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York: Harper & Row, 1988), pp. 208-210; Barbara Meil Hobson, Uneasy Virtue: The Politics o f Prostitution and the American Reform Tradition (New York: Basic Books, 1987), pp. 141-144; and Joanne Meyerowitz, Women Adrift: Independent Wage Earners in Chicago, 1880-1930 (University of Chicago Press, 1988), p. 61. 26. D ’Emilio and Freedman, Intimate Matters , pp. 209-210. The findings of vice commissions helped to expose the cozy relationship between the police, the machine, and owners o f brothels and saloons. See, Fogelson, Big-City Police, pp. 129-134. 27. Barbara Leslie Epstein, The Politics o f Domesticity: Women, Evangelism, and Temperance in Nineteenth-Century America (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1981), pp. 125-126. 28. Among the cities in which policewomen were known as protective officers were Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco, California. 29. “ Functions and Work o f the Woman’s Bureau o f a Police Department and Tests for Selection o f Policewoman,” Public Personnel Studies 5 (December 1927): 247. 30. Henrietta T. Additon, an advocate o f women police, remarked in 1924, “ I remember talking with a group o f very respectable, wealthy club women who were quite cold to the idea o f policewomen , but when I spoke of public chaperons, their attitude completely changed.” (Italics in original.) “ The Policewoman,” Community Treatment o f Delinquency, Annual Report and Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Conference o f the National Probation Association (New York: National Probation Association, 1924), pp. 238-239. Policewomen’s role as public chaperones formed part o f the response of the middle class to the changing sexual behavior o f young women. During the past fifteen years, researchers have found ample evidence o f changes in sexual culture among young working-class women during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The composite portrait emerging from their studies depicts young working-class women as sexual rebels against parental and middle-class ideas o f “ respectability.” Some young women were “ charity girls” who bartered sexual favors for an evening's entertainment; others used sexual intimacy as a strategy to induce a steady boyfriend to propose marriage. Pioneer policewomen and their supporters found the new sexual culture appalling. They believed that premarital sexual intercourse harmed women individually and collectively. Policewomen’s efforts to impose middle-class standards o f morality on young workingclass women thus involved dynamics o f class, gender, and generational conflict. For analysis o f the changing sexual mores o f the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, see D ’Emilio and Freedman, Intimate Matters, especially chapters eight through eleven. For studies o f working-class young women, see Kathy Peiss, Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Tum-of-theCentury New York (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1986) and Joanne Meyerowitz, Women Adrift. 31. Walker, Critical History, pp. 38, 81. 32. Michael J. Regan, untitled speech, IACP, Proceedings, 1911, p. 149.

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33. Joseph M. Quigley, “ Prevention o f Crime,” IACP, Proceedings, 1912, p. 105. 34. All speeches are in the IACP Proceedings o f 1915. Robert D. Carter, “ Police and Press,” p. 31; James L. Beavers, “The Efficiency o f the Police Department,” p. 78; Walter “ W. J .” Petersen, “The Constructive Police,” p. 70. 35. The major exception to police chiefs* silence about policewomen was the resolution passed in 1922 at the convention o f the International Chiefs o f Police stating that policewomen were “ a necessity.” This resolution was the work o f a special committee whose membership and deliberations are not recorded in the published proceedings. The 1922 convention was unique in other ways as well. It featured numerous speakers from outside law enforcement, including academic criminologists and clinical psychologists. 36. “Western Women as Police Officers,” Survey, 21 December 1912, p. 346. 37. Quoted in “ Policewomen in Chicago,” Literary Digest, 23 August 1913, p. 271. 38. Alice Stebbins Wells, “ Women on the Police Force,” American City, April 1913, p. 401. 39. Dorothy Thomas, “ Crime Prevention is Our Job,” Independent Woman, January 1935, p. 32. 40. Martha Strayer, “ Daily News Representative Discovers Human Side of Policewomen at Regional Conference,” Policewoman's International Bulletin 3 (August-September 1927): 5. 41. August Vollmer, “ The Policewoman and Pre-Delinquency,” Woman Citizen, March 1926, p. 30. Despite his well-known enthusiasm for crime prevention work, Vollmer was a latecomer to the movement for women police. For example, in a lengthy speech at the annual meeting o f police chiefs in 1919 on “The Policeman as Social Worker,” he did not once mention policewomen; he claimed that “wayward girls’* could be saved from lives o f degradation by “the kindly counsel o f the policeman.” IACP, Proceedings, 1919, p. 36. 42. Some ideas about female gender identity transcended women’s class, race, ethnic, and national identities. In this paper, I make no distinction between concepts o f gender that transcended class, race, ethnic, and national identities, and those which pertained largely to the middle-class native-born white women who dominated the movement for women police. 43. Vollmer, “ The Policewoman and Pre-Delinquency,” p. 30. 44. Rhoda J. Miliken, “ W e D on’t Carry Nightsticks!” Prison World 6 (March-April 1944): 5. Susan Bordo discusses the origins o f a masculine cognitive style (stressing emotional detachment and concern for abstract principles) in “ The Cartesian Masculinization o f Thought,” Signs 3 (Spring 1986): 439456. 45. Louis Brownlow, “ The City and the Citizen,” Policewomen's Internation-

al Bulletin 3 (October 1927): 2.

46. New Haven, Connecticut newspaper editorial quoted in “ Progress in New Haven,” p. 6. Some policemen were well-aware o f their unsavory public

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image. See, _for example, California Peace Officers Association, Proceedings 1931, pp. 86-95, quoted in Walker, Critical History , p. 134. 47. For this analysis I mined approximately 150 articles published between 1912 and 1940 on the work o f women police; two books, Owings, Women Police cited herein and Eleanor Hutzel, The Policewoman's Handbook (New York: Columbia University Press, 1933); the annual proceedings of the conventions of the International Association o f Chiefs o f Police, 1913-1930; the Policewoman's International Bulletin, 1925-1929; and the Annual Reports o f the City Mother’s Bureau and the Crime Prevention Bureau o f the Los Angeles Police Department, 1914-1940. 48. For a succinct discussion o f how contests over meanings involve the introduction o f new pairs o f opposition, see Scott, Gender and the Politics o f History, pp. 6-7. 49. W ells, untitled speech, IACP, Proceedings , 1914, p. 129. 50. “ Functions and Work o f the Woman’s Bureau,” p. 247. 51. “ Editorial,” Policewoman's International Bulletin 3 (August-Scptember 1927): 4. 52. Estelle B. Freedman discusses female institution building in “Separatism as Strategy: Female Institution Building and American Feminism, 1870-1930,” Feminist Studies 5 (Fall 1979): 512-529. 53. “ Her Ears Hear Women’s W oes” Los Angeles Times 4 October 1914, sec. 2, p. 10; “ Gilbert Crash Quiz Held,” Los Angeles Times 5 June 1931, sec. 2, p. 6; Sjoquist, Los Angeles Police Department Commemorative Book, p. 148. 54. Owings, Women Police, p. 164, quoting N ew York Police Commissioner Richard E. Enright. 55. “ Her Ears Hear Women’s W oes,” sec. 2, p. 10. 56. “ The City Mothers Bureau o f Los Angeles, California,” Journal o f Social Hygiene 1 (June 1915): 495. 57. Vandyck, “ No Man’s Land in Police W ork,” p. 51. 58. Photograph captioned “ City Mothers’ Row Over Ousting Up to City Attorney,” unidentified newspaper clipping in the possession o f the Staininger family, Glendale, California. 59. Letter from Mina C. Van Winkle to the Superintendent o f Police o f Washington, D .C ., quoted in part in “ Here and T here,” Policewoman's International Bulletin 3 (August-September 1927): 8. Policewomen were not the only women in criminal justice occupations during the 1910s and 1920s who felt the need to establish a home-like atmosphere in their offices. For example, most detailed accounts o f the office o f Los Angeles Juvenile Court Referee Miriam Van Waters include glowing descriptions o f its home-like atmosphere. 60. Dr. Mary B. Harris, “ The Socialized Policewoman,” Woman Citizen, 27 June 1925, p. 15. It is difficult to state how many woman’s bureaus existed at any given time because no one kept reliable records. The editors o f the Policewoman 's International Bulletin asserted in March 1928 that they received reports every year regarding woman’s bureaus that were abolished (p. 4). They also occasionally reported the establishment o f new bureaus.

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61. Owings, Women P olice, p. 257. 62. Clarence B. Smith, Jr., “The True Sphere of Policewomen/' P o lice Journal (April 1922): 61. Owings discusses cartoonists’ portrayal o f Wells in Women P olice, p. 103. 63. Helen D. Pigeon, “ Policewomen in the United States," Journal o f th e American Institute o f Criminal L aw an d Criminology 18 (November 1927): 376. 64. “Uniform a Vexing Problem to Policewomen," Police Journal (July 1922) p. 23. By the 1910s, some reform-minded police chiefs also believed that arrests of women and children should be made as discreetly as possible. See, for example, Richard Sylvester, “The Treatment of the Woman Delinquent from the Police Standpoint," IACP, Proceedings, 1911, p. 153. 65. Mary Jane Spurlin, “Women's Contribution to Crime Prevention," O regon L aw R eview 14 (April 1935): 419. 66. “ Uniform A Vexing Problem to Policewomen,” p. 23. 67. When the police department of Chicago hired the first black policemen in the United States in the late nineteenth century, it did not permit them to wear uniforms. Walker, Critical H istory, p. 10. 68. “ Here and There with the Policewomen,” International A ssociation o f Policewomen 3 (November-December 1927): 10-11. 69. Historian Brie Monkkonen has observed that when American police departments first required uniforms in the mid-to late nineteenth century, policemen strongly resisted wearing them on the grounds that uniforms were both undemocratic and “ servantlike." P olice in Urban Am erica, pp. 44-45. 70. “Women on the LAPD: It Ain’t a New Phenomenon," Los Angeles Police Relief Association, Guardian (First Quarter 1990): 4. 71. Nelson, “On the Policewoman’s ‘Beat,’’’ p. 138. 72. IACP, Proceedings, 1921, p. 51. 73. New Haven, Connecticut newspaper editorial quoted in “Progress in New Haven," p. 6. 74. Van Winkle, Preface to Women Police by Owings, p. ix; Edith Abbott, “Training for the Policewoman’s Job," Woman Citizen, April 1926, p. 30. 75. Joseph A. Gerk, “ Policewomen," IACP Proceedings, 1930, p. 161. 76. Nelson, “ On the Policewoman’s ‘Beat,’" p. 138. 77. Ibid., p. 154. 78. Monkkonen, Police in Urban Am erica, p. 4. 79. Walker, Critical H istory, p. 169. 80. Monkkonen, Police in Urban Am erica, pp. 152-153. 81. Ibid., p. 159. 82. For a discussion of the link between commonly attributed gender differences and occupational subculture in criminal justice professions, see Nanci Koser Wilson, “ Women in the Criminal Justice Professions: An Analysis of Status Conflict,” in Nicole Hahn Rafter and Elizabeth Anne Stanko, eds., Ju dge, L aw yer, Victim, Tlnef: Women, Gender Roles, and Criminal Justice (Northeastern University Press, 1982), pp. 359-374.

[2]

Policewomen in the 1950s: Paving the Way for Patrol D orothy M oses Schulz

ABSTRACT. The 1950s were years of advancement for United Stales policewomen; a time when their numbers and their ides increased substantially. They re-established their professional association and began to demand promotional opportunities comparable to those of their male colleagues. This activism foreshadowed the 1972 extension of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to state and municipal governments and provided a vital link between the policewomen appointed early in the twentieth century and today's women police officers. Title VII did not ignite issues of sexual and gender equality for policewomen; it did, though, provide legal support for previously expressed demands. The 1950s, long view ed by modem fem inists as a dormant period in wom en’s activism and fem ale consciousness, was a period o f growth for policewom en. They began, for the first time since World War 1, to increase not only their numbers, but also their responsibilities, in police departments throughout the United States. The changes die 1950s policewom en precipitated played a major role in the transition they and their sister officers made from social workers to crimefighters in the 1970s and 1980s. When women first went on uniform patrol in the late 1960s and early 1970s, it was not an isolated event. It was part o f a continuum that led them out o f a specialized, gender-based role in policing into genderless, general assignm ent policing. When Title VII o f the Dorothy Moses Schulz, PhD in American Civilization from New York University, is Director of Security at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She is a former police captain.

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1964 Civil Rights Act was amended in 1972 to empower die Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to begin enforcing existing laws against state or local government agencies, including police departments, that discriminated against any o f the protected categories, including wom en, policewom en were already w ell on their way to dismantling their traditional sex based roles in policing. Women officers had been demanding changes in their roles as early as the m id-1950s, a decade before passage o f the C ivil Rights Act. By the early 1960s, still ahead o f die Act and a decade prior to its expansion to include government agencies, policew om en had turned to the courts to challenge civil service regulations that severely limited their roles in police departments. Although Title VII has been called “ a cornerstone o f the w om en’s m ovem ent,” 1 its place in policewom en’s demands for equality in policing was not to create the desire for equality, but to provide the legal support for changes that began in the 1950s. The idea that uniform patrol on an equal basis with m ale officers was a viable use o f fem ale police personnel was part o f a progression that began in the 1950s toward greater integration o f women into the police environment. A large measure o f this integration was fostered by the dim inishing importance o f the concept o f “ w om en’s sphere” in many areas o f society. W omen’s roles had changed, just as women’s roles in police departments in the post-World War II years differed from the post-World War I years. Expansion in the number o f policew om en during both wars was attributable almost solely to morality concerns. At the end o f World War I, policewomen’s gains were aborted by the Depression. But after World War n , policewomen were able to maintain new ly acquired positions and increase both their numbers and duties throughout the 1950s. The 1950 United States Census reported 2,610 publicly employed policew om en, slightly more than one percent o f all police and detectives.2 This was a sizable increase over 1940, when 1,775 women were counted in public and private agencies com bined. The numbers o f policew om en continued to increase throughout the 1950s, when a national preoccupation with crime prevention and delinquency provided the impetus for additional hirings. By 1956 policewomen were employed in more than 150 cities.3 The 1960 Census counted 5,617 policewom en who comprised approximately

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two percent o f publicly em ployed officers.4 In the ten years from 1950 to 1960 the number o f policew om en increased by 3,000, doubling the 1950 figure and alm ost equalling the total number o f policewom en who had held the title since it had been created by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) for A lice Stebbins W ells in 1910. When concern with morality and delinquency intensified after World War II, the number o f policew om en continued to increase, and their assignments began to diversify. They were often teamed with male officers on undercover assignments and more frequently investigated other than morality crim es. They were issued uniforms based on fem ale military garb (although they rarely wore them except at special events) and were trained in the use of and expected to cany firearms. The post war period and the 1950s also brought a different type of woman into policing. Often military veterans, these “ second generation” policew om en were middle class careerists. Although better educated (m ost had som e college but not necessarily a degree) and higher in social-class orientation than their male peers, these women were less different from policem en than their predecessors had been. They formed a bridge between the upper-middle class, college educated, fem inist, Progressive women who had served as policewom en before them and today’s women officers, m ost o f whom are comparable to the overwhelm ingly working class, high school educated men with whom they serve. These second generation women actively sought upward m obility through rank, again resem bling their male colleagues and underlining the differences between them selves and the first generation policewom en. By the end o f the 1950s, there were a number o f women in supervisory ranks, although most were political, rather than civil service, appointees. In New York City, where no civil service promotions existed for wom en, battle lines were drawn that brought legal action in the com ing decade. In 1956 policewom en re-established the professional association that had existed from 1915 to 1932, then known as the International Association o f Policewom en (LAP). Through the newly formed International A ssociation o f Women Police (IAWP), they developed a group consciousness distinct from social workers with whom they

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had been closely aligned in the early years o f their developm ent when most policewom en were them selves trained social workers. Women were not as visible at social work conferences as they had been in the past and were isolated from their social service roots. This absence o f contact with organized social work pushed the women to see them selves more fully as police, reinforcing the changes in orientation among younger policew om en that ultim ately resulted in demands for equality beginning in the 1970s. The IAWP, though, came to embody many o f the contradictions w ithin the policew om en’s movement at this tim e. One o f few single-sex organizations created during the 1950s, it sought to integrate wom en more fully into the police environment but still endorsed a gender based role for women and sex segregation through wom en’s bureaus. The issue o f wom en’s bureaus remained an emotional one throughout the decade. D espite die increasing number o f cities em ploying women, by 1958 only ten o f the largest one hundred cities in die U .S. reported separate policew om en’s bureaus: New York, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Washington, D C, Baltimore, Grand Rapids, Rochester, Portland (Oregon), and Tacoma.3 The decline in the number of bureaus resulted from m ost o f them having been consolidated into juvenile or crime prevention bureaus. W hile this ultimately aided the integration o f policew om en into areas o f police work not only concerned with women and children and placed them in closer proximity with policemen, it hampered their upward m obility, since women rarely achieved rank other than within the sex segregated wom en’s bureaus. The major exceptions to this were Seattle and Portland, where bureaus involved with morality violations, whether termed wom en’s or crime prevention divisions, had historically bear commanded by ranking wom en officers who also supervised the male officers assigned to handle male juveniles. BELYING THE M YTH O F “ TH E Q U IE T ’50s" Policewom en were not the only working wom en to contradict the still prevailing image o f “the quiet ’50s” as a decade o f stagnation for American women. Leila J. Rupp and Verta Taylor, in Survival in the Doldrums: The American Women’s Rights Movement, 1945 to the 1960s, asked, “Feminism in the fifties?” and answered: “ Pre-

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sumably these were years o f dom esticity and conformity for American women, not years o f discontent and protest. . . w e did not expect to discover many women carrying on the struggle for wom en’s rights___ However, we found that a great deal was going on.”6 Rupp and Taylor came to see 1945 to the mid 1960s “ as a particular stage o f the wom en’s rights m ovem ent that survived from the suffrage struggle. . . to connect with the resurgent movement o f the 1960s.”7 W hile die continuity may not be as direct in the history o f policew om en, there is a com m onality in that 1945 to the m id 1960s were years o f activity among policew om en that paved the way for developments that would radically alter wom en’s place in the police environm ent This view o f fem ale advancement and activism in the 1950s contrasts sharply with die more traditional assessment o f June Sochen. Sochen, in M overs and Shakers: American Women Thinkers and Activists, 1900-1970, describing wom en in college in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, stated that they shared the same values as women who did not attend college, agreeing that marriage was the prime occupation o f all women. According to Sochen, if college wom en worked, “they did so in a part-time temporary manner [and] did not pursue a career seriously.. . . Work outside the h o m e. . . was not an all-consuming or truly meaningful experience.. . . The home remained, as always, the main center o f their liv e s.”8 This was not the case with policew om en, whether o f middle or working class origins. Most view ed policing as a career and worked in excess o f the twenty or tw enty-five years required for retirement. Police annual reports that list separations show that few women left voluntarily. Rookie policewom en were hired when quotas were expanded or when older women retired. It was this career orientation that caused these policewom en to fight for expanded roles and promotional opportunities. But change did not come easily. The style o f policing that predominated in the 1950s, O.W. W ilson’s efficient, military management m odel, was not conducive to progress by policewom en. W ilson’s text, Police Administration (die “ bible” o f law enforcement managers), went through four editions, the first published in 1950 and the last in 1977. Through all editions, W ilson advocated highly circumscribed roles for policewom en. Although he conceded that

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women had value in juvenile work and other lim ited activities, he stated unequivocally that women were not qualified to head even juvenile units. W ilson argued that male officers had wider police experience, would be better able to secure the cooperation of other supervisors, and were “ less likely to become irritable and oveicritical under emotional stress” than women supervisors.9 W ilson’s influence was so strong in California that the style o f policing he promoted became known as “the California style” or “California professionalism .” 10 Exem plified by the LAPD during the tenure of C hief W illiam H. Parker from 1950 to 1966, California professionalism combined authoritative administrative practices, centralized command and control that tolerated neither corruption nor dissent, and intensive public relations. Parker, who had served during World War II under W ilson and was very much his disciple, stressed the role o f police as crimefighters and portrayed police as the “thin blue line” between “ civilization and chaos.” He cooperated with the television show “ Dragnet,” which assured a generation o f Americans that their police were just like Sergeant Joe Friday: relentless, efficient, and quietly professional. The fictional Friday’s trademark demeanor and request for “just the facts, M a’am” sym bolized the depersonalized policing that embodied a department distant from citizens o f the community.11 California policing was the opposite o f policewom en’s interventionist, individual-centered concept o f crime prevention, where the crime was less important than the social situation surrounding it. Parker and his men personified the crimefighter image. Los Angeles police perpetuated on a municipal level the almost mythical crimefighter created in the 1930s by J. Edgar Hoover and agents o f the Federal Bureau o f Investigation (FBI). Despite this image, Los A ngeles policewom en managed to make gains. By 1956 they exceeded tw o percent of the LAPD, including eleven sergeants selected by com petitive exam and one appointed fem ale lieutenant.12 And in 1958, the ninety-seven policewom en were the second largest group in the nation, exceeded only by the 249 in the New York City Police Department (NYCPD).13 C hief Parker was not unaware of die women in his department He reminded groups he addressed that “ the young men and wom en” who entered policing were products o f the American scene, including many

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released from the armed forces and returned to civilian life.14 A ctually, he was one o f the few police leaders who mentioned wom en. The prevailing custom among chiefs and in department annual reports was to use fem inine pronouns only on the pages describing p olicewom en’s activities; otherwise, references were always to “ the m en,” “policem en,” “patrolmen,” “he," or “him .” Elsewhere in California, policewom en returned to the San D iego Police Department in February 1954, when C hief Elmer Jansen hired four women detectives. Concerned with a rise in rapes, fem ale criminality, and juvenile delinquency, Jansen, who joined the department as a police officer in 1932 and served as chief from late 1947 to early 1962, felt his department’s reliance on matrons to do p olicewom en’s work was no longer sufficient. At the time he decided to hire policewom en, Jansen was engaged to a fem ale captain in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Seem ingly influenced not only by his fiancee (who he married in 1955), but also by the ethos o f California policing, Jansen “ was not interested in hiring altruistic, social-worker types,” but “‘real’ policew om en.” Sylvia Bate, hired in 1957, remembered that when Jansen asked why she wanted to join the department, thinking a noble answer would enhance her chances, she said she wanted to help make the world a better place. Not pleased, Jansen thundered, “Then go work in the Welfare Department, that’s not what we expect from our policew om en.” What was expected o f this “elite group,” who earned the same pay as starting policem en, was at least two years o f college and experience dealing with people (men needed only a high school diploma), outstanding physical appearance, adherence to a strict dress code (including hats, white gloves, conservatively colored business suits and high heels), and an even higher moral code (the sole unmarried policewom an recalled being under scrutiny among her five hundred m ale peers until she married one o f them in 1956). Due to the sm all number o f women officers in the area, throughout the 1950s and 1960s, San D iego’s women, “always wearing hats and high h eels,” were loaned to other police agencies for narcotics raids, extradition cases, and undercover work related to prostitution, abortion, and pornography.15 San D iego’s women were representative o f the second generation policewomen; w hile distinct from

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their male co-workers, they were a far cry from their social worker foremothers. Although police historians today view the 1950s as the decade o f California policing, it was not as dominant elsew here, particularly in large cities with a more ethnically and community based policing style, as within California itself. Additionally, the crimefighter image did not erase concerns about crim e prevention and juvenile delinquency, where women did the majority o f their work. In 1952 the International Association o f Chiefs o f Police (IACP) sought data on departments with juvenile bureaus. O f the 611 respondents, 303 had at least one officer doing juvenile work. O f these, 132 assigned women to juvenile duties. A ll responding cities with populations over five hundred thousand had policewom en in their juvenile units, as did the majority o f cities with populations between one hundred thousand and five hundred thousand.16

THE IAWP: BRIDGING THE GENERATIONS OF POLICEWOMEN It is one o f the ironies o f policew om en’s history that when the International Association o f Policewom en (IAP) was re-established as the International Association o f Women Police (IAWP), the driving force was a woman from Chicago and the site was San Diego; neither o f whose departments, although em ploying women for decades, had been associated with the social work aspects o f the policew om en’s movement. In September 1949, Illinois created a statewide Crime Prevention Bureau headquartered in Chicago. One o f those assigned was Lois Lundell H iggins, a fourteen-year veteran Chicago policewom an w hose career had begun in the sex offense bureau, where she was the only woman amid fifty men. Prior to becom ing a policewom an, Higgins had been a juvenile court probation officer, a dom estic relations court counselor, and a fam ily caseworker with the United Charities o f Chicago. Named assistant director o f the crime prevention unit at its inception in March 1951, she became director, serving also as crime prevention coordinator for the municipal court.17 H iggins’ training was similar to early policewom en. In 1931, she graduated cum laude from Mount Mary C ollege in M ilwaukee; in

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1947, she wrote her master’s o f social work thesis at Loyola U niversity on women’s bureaus in eight U .S. cities, and in 1949, M ount Mary C ollege awarded her an honorary doctor o f laws degree. Yet she moved beyond social work concerns. In 1951 she was the only woman to testify at drug control hearings before a House o f Representatives subcommittee and a Senate committee investigating organized crime in interstate com m erce, and in 1955 she became the first woman to attend the Southern P olice Institute at the University o f Louisville, Kentucky.18 Higgins spoke and wrote extensively in the 1950s and 1960s, initially as director o f the crime prevention bureau and after 1956 as president of the IAWP. Her philosophy o f women’s role in law enforcement (which remained consistent throughout her career) appeared in a 1950 article. She used social work term inology to describe the work o f policewom en, but she did not accept the view that policew om en were social workers, although she did believe that their primary duty was dealing with causes o f crim e, rather than with enforcement and punishment. She believed that while case work . . . is not within the province o f the p olicewoman, she m u st. . . be conscious . . . that she is dealing with human beings and w ith . . . factors in society which . . . hinder their . . . adjustment to society and to its laws. From this standpoint, her work has at least one characteristic that is common to all social work; it inquires into causes.19 In May 1956, Higgins attended a Women Peace O fficers Association o f California (W POAC) m eeting at which she and others formed the IAWP. The WPOAC m et annually with the California Peace Officers Association, its m ale counterpart. W hile addressing a luncheon to which both men and women had been invited, Higgins unveiled plans for an international association o f wom en officers that would serve as a “clearing house for inform ation,” would adopt a code o f ethics, and w ould be a prelude to professional status, which she felt was vital to all law enforcement officers, but particularly to policewom en.20 Just as A lice Stebbins W ells, the first woman in the U.S. to be officially called a policewom an, had gone before the National Conference o f Charities and Correction (NCCC) in 1915 with a plan to form the LAP, so Higgins approached

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the WPOAC. Letters to 275 departments to gauge interest resulted in returned applications and dues from more than two hundred women from tw enty-five states and the District o f Columbia.21 Reinforcing links to the past, when Higgins was named president, among those who watched her sworn in was W ells, who had retired from the LAPD in 1940. W ells died in 1957, a year after the IAWP’s creation.22 A new name was selected because there were questions about old debts. Board members were concerned, too, that “ policewom an” referred to a specific job title which would disqualify women serving as troopers, marshals, sheriffs, or matrons. Although the organizers did not want to elim inate any women sworn officers regardless o f titles, there was agreement that nonsw om wom en, whether matrons, schoolcrossing guards, or traffic enforcement officers, could not becom e members.23 The large number o f wom en performing such functions who were called “p olice” but who were civilian em ployees o f police departments resulted in confusion when policewom en were described or written about. To combat this, the IAWP lim ited membership to women with full police authority. Indicative o f the changing orientation o f both social workers and policewom en, the IAWP did not form the social work alliances that had characterized the IAP. Although many policewom en in the 1950s had social work training, it was not as universal as in earlier decades. A lso, social workers were now a distinct profession o f their own; they did not view policew om en as colleagues in the way they had during the Progressive era. Policew om en o f the 1950s were no longer linked to municipal or private-agency social workers. Higgins was not concerned with the absence o f social work affiliations; she sought a much closer relationship with the IACP than had the IAP. When she addressed the IACP in 1957 she was one o f its few women members and the only woman on its crim e prevention committee. She appears to have been the first policewoman to address the association as a full participant in conference activities, rather than solely as a representative o f policewomen. Her talk, “The Feminine Force in Crime Prevention,” described policewomen as “ competent, efficient, attractive and w ell groomed” professionals who were “ selfless, educated women who can and do minister to the world’s socially ill.”24

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H iggins did not view policew om en as social work professionals in a police environment, but as professional law enforcement officers working in conjunction with m ale colleagues who should also be view ed as professionals. Her view s on professionalism , rather than equality, influenced the IAWP throughout her presidency (ending in 1964) and her tenure as executive director until 1976. These view s, seem ingly shared by the majority o f members, resulted in the IAWP endorsing separate roles for policew om en even after a number o f women began to demand equality in the 1970s. Not until 1972, four years after Indianapolis assigned women to general police work, patrolling in uniform in marked police cars and responding to calls for service, did the IAWP delete from its constitution the clause encouraging establishment o f wom en’s bureaus. In 1990, Higgins indicated that she still did not agree with women abandoning their positions as educated professionals to, in her view, lower their status to assume the generalist position of uniform patrol officer.23 In September 1958 the IAWP held the first o f what became biannual conferences. The IACP, acting as a cooperating sponsor, urged chiefs to send officers. A t least two chiefs participated, as did the IACP’s training director. There were nearly seventy attendees from forty-three cities within nineteen states and three Canadian provinces. M ost were from sm all or medium sized departments; fewer than ten held ranks above policewom an. Training sessions, many taught by ranking officers o f wom en’s bureaus, included urban and rural juvenile policing, youth and crim e, interrogating juveniles and teenagers, interrogating abnormal persons, adult interviews and interrogation, investigative techniques, public relations, and professionalization issues confronting women police.26 The social work origins o f the policew om en’s movement were not easily left behind. A member o f the Illinois Youth Commission advised the women that their activities involved four main fields, “law enforcement, crime prevention, protection o f youth, and service to their own sex in trouble.” D elving into the final category, he asked w hose job is it to take care o f women in trouble? Is that a man’s job? W hose job is it to take care o f the girls in trouble? Is that a man’s job? W hose job is it to help a fam ily in trouble?

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Is that too only a man’s jo b ? . . . I am sure that it isn’t the wish o f our better thinking citizens that only a man can protect the innocent or help convict the guilty among children, and women. This is a job for a woman with her motherly instinct o f love, service and justice.27 Higgins addressed similar them es, calling the fem inine arm o f the law the one that “rocks the cradle, and sometimes shoots a wicked .38. ”28 The IAWP reported 320 members, including 295 from the U .S., three from Canada, and twenty-two from all other countries.29 H iggins, and the IAWP during her leadership, bridged the generations o f policewomen. It is unlikely that an association as closely linked to social work as the IAP had been could have been created in the 1950s. Social work had changed, but so had policew om en. The women working in the 1950s were interested in career opportunities and recognition within law enforcem ent, not within social work. Like their male colleagues who had become careerists in the 1930s, policewomen in the 1950s saw their future in civil service appointment and promotion and in diversified assignments within their departments.

TRADITION PROVES DIFFICULT TO OVERCOME Despite efforts by policewom en to enhance their roles within police departments, O.W. W ilson’s philosophy continued to influence most depaitments. Although his view s on lim ited roles for policewom en prevailed throughout the nation, utilization o f wom en fluctuated greatly. Even in departments where policewom en com prised one or two percent of sworn personnel (a large percentage at this tim e), roles and responsibilities differed. A review o f w om en’s activities in three departments em ploying a large number o f them indicates that their histories within their individual departments continued to effect how they were perceived years later. The ways in which cities reacted to wom en’s demands for assignment, promotions, and, later, equality in hiring, also differed. Numbers alone rarely overcame tradition. Chicago, the nation’s second largest city, in 1958 had the fourth

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largest number o f women (eighty-four), behind New York C ity (249), Los A ngeles (ninety-seven), and Detroit (ninety-three), and followed by Cleveland (fifty-five), Philadelphia (forty), and Indianapolis (thirty-nine).30 Although Chicago appointed policewomen as early as 1913, it did not organize them into a women’s bureau until 1947. Even then, women continued to work out o f precincts rather than a central headquarters. Throughout the 1950s the number o f policewom en averaged about eighty. Policewomen and matrons were used interchangeably although counted separately in personnel listings. Educational requirements were the same; no college or advanced training was required, nor was social work experience a prerequisite. Chicago’s policew om en, far fewer in number than New York’s, made many more arrests. This appears attributable to their decentralized assignments, as w ell as to a less social service oriented view o f their duties by both the department and the women. W hile the ninety-eight members o f New York’s wom en’s bureau made few er than 150 arrests in both 1952 and 1953, Chicago policewom en in 1953 arrested 862 adults and also handled 2,063 juvenile girls. They conducted 7,674 investigations and 2,588 interviews leading either to arrest or to referral to other agencies. Matrons performed duties that in N ew York were the responsibility o f policew om en assigned to precincts with female jail cells.31 On January 17,1 9 5 6 , Sergeant Marilynn O lson, women’s division commanding officer, became the city’s first fem ale lieutenant. Both her father and brother were members o f the department. Later that year, a tw elve-year veteran policewom an who had been a public health nurse, was promoted to sergeant. Both women earned salaries identical to their male colleagues. The promotions were appointive, rather than civil service, but in 1959 the city was planning com petitive exams for women.32 Chicago introduced uniforms for policew om en in 1956. The June-July issue o f the Patrolmen’s A ssociation Official Magazine featured the uniformed women on its cover, noting in an accompanying story: “ Many cities throughout the world have adopted uniforms for Policewom en and have noted an additional prestige and efficiency since doing so .” The uniform, to be worn by all policewomen except those assigned to the detective division, consisted o f

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a navy blue skirt, a light blue shirt, navy blue jacket and overseas cap, a man’s style tie and navy blue leather pumps and shoulder bag.33 It was typical of women’s uniforms around the country, although most cities avoided a man’s tie, favoring a small cross-tie for women. The 1956 Annual Report also featured pictures o f the uniformed women, including one o f an officer standing with a m ale in plainclothes pointing her revolver at die camera.34 Detroit’s policewom en came from a totally different background than C hicago’s. A very strong social work tradition follow ed diem into the 1950s, by which time die approximately ninety policewomen made up somewhat more than two percent o f the total police personnel. Detroit had a woman com m issioner and provided promotions for women. In 1956 there were six sergeants and five lieutenants in com petitive ranks and one appointed chief (Fourth Deputy Commissioner Margaret Snow who also had the title o f C hief o f the Women’s D ivision).35 Snow ’s predecessor, Eleanoie L. H utzel, had been one o f the leading advocates o f a purely social service role for policewom en. Hutzel also had imposed high educational standards. This legacy continued, too; although by 1955 policewom en w ere no longer lim ited only to cases involving traditional social work, they were still required to have a college degree or professional training. One was attending law school. The women worked in plainclothes, their .38 calibre revolvers (which they were mandated to carry on duty) tucked into department issued pocketbooks with built in holsters that had becom e standard for policewom en around the country. A ll were assigned to the wom en’s division, although a number were loaned to the detective division to assist in a variety o f cases, including “ a number o f important narcotics cases during the past few years.” Women on the day shift worked alone. The twenty-six assigned to shifts between 4 p.m. and 8 a.m. worked with another policewom an, patrolling in radio equipped cars and, “ unless physical violence is anticipated or the arrest o f adult men is involved, they perform their task satisfactorily without the aid o f men officers.” Twenty women assigned to the courts worked with six male detectives. Although the men were under Deputy Commissioner Snow ’s command, their immediate supervisor was a male detective sergeant. The women were supervised by a fem ale lieutenant and sergeant.36

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Detroit’s promotional policies for women were in stark contrast to New York City, where the police department provided virtually no promotional opportunities for policewom en. The New York C ity Police Department (NYCPD) opened the decade by appointing a record number o f policew om en, and its 1950 Annual Report p ictured women recruits in uniform, calling them “ a valuable aid to many aspects o f police work.” Yet its promotional policies for women were among the most restrictive o f any large department in the nation. By 1958, twenty-eight o f the one hundred largest cities provided promotions for women, although in thirteen the only upward mobility was to sergeant.37 In 1950 the NYCPD’s quota for policewom en was 190; all but three positions were filled on New Year’s Day and there was only one vacancy on the last day o f 1950. The following year, the quota was increased; fifty-six women were appointed, including fortyfive on October 3 ,1 9 5 1 . This was the largest group o f policew om en ever appointed at one time in New York or in the nation. By 1959 the quota was 253, approximately one percent of the force.3* Because the NYCPD was so much larger than other departments, 253 women (the largest number in the country) constituted a smaller percentage than few er women did in other cities. Roles did not increase as quickly as numbers did. The major activity was “ detained fem ales,” which refers to matron duty at precincts with cells for women prisoners. The next largest category was “deceased fem ales searched.” Women worked in a variety o f bureaus, but the largest group was assigned to the women’s bureau. In 1952, Theresa M. M elchionne, a ten-year veteran, was appointed director. Although M elchionne had planned to be a math teacher rather than a social worker, her background was similar to early women’s bureau directors. A college graduate at nineteen, the Depression led her to seek the security o f a civil service position. She worked as an investigator with the New York Society for the Prevention o f Cruelty to Children before becoming a policewom an. She remained director o f policew om en until 1963 when she was promoted to Deputy Commissioner o f Youth Programs. Prior to being named director, she had been promoted twice within the detective rank.39 D etective rank, and promotions within it, were

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appointive. It was the only method o f promotion open to wom en, since they were barred from taking promotion exams. M elchionne “tried very hard to expand the role o f w om en,” particularly investigating “crimes and offenses directed towards women and children.” Her efforts on behalf o f “her girls” resulted in 1953 in twenty-two o f the ninety-eight women in the bureau being transferred temporarily to assist m ale colleagues in anti-gambling enforcem ent Although expected primarily to assist in observation and detection, the women made eighty-five arrests, a considerable number (the entire wom en’s bureau made only 131 arrests in 1952). By the end o f 1953, thirty-two wom en were in the juvenile aid bureau (which required a college degree and specialized training), and sixteen were assigned to narcotics. Others were scattered about many serving as secretaries for high ranking officers.40 A 1952 management survey, com bined with the increasing number o f women and the beginnings o f an internal “struggle for equal promotion” by the wom en,41 forced the department to address the issue for the first time in 1954. According to the Annual R eport: consideration was given to . . . establishing within the Policewomen’s Bureau a procedure for advancement to . . . captain [the highest rank that could be achieved via civil serv ice].. . . Now . . . a policewoman enters . . . at the level o f a patrolman and is unable to advance beyond that, except within the D etective D iv isio n .. . . The commanding officer o f . . . policewomen . . . although she receives a salary equivalent to . . . captain, has . . . no superior officer’s rank . . . an archaic double standard which we hope w ill be corrected in the very near future, at least to the extent o f having comparable, com petitive ranks o f policewomen with authority only over low er ranks in the Bureau.42 Regardless o f intentions, the “near future” did not come soon and did not com e voluntarily. Civil service promotion for New York City policewom en did not occur until the 1960s, after a court ruling in favor o f veteran Policewoman F elicia Shpritzer who sued to take the exam for sergeant. Shpritzer, a Hunter C ollege graduate, also held a master’s degree from the U niversity o f M ichigan and had taught high school. At the time she began her quest for promotion, she was the first woman to receive a masters o f public administra-

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tion with a police science major from the City University o f New York. She had taken and passed the first c iv il service test for policewomen in New York City in 1938, but, due to the small quota for wom en, was not appointed until 1942. A t the tim e o f her suit, she was assigned to the youth division, where she had worked for most o f her career.43 hi 1961, three years before passage o f the C ivil Rights Act and eleven years before its extension to governm ent agencies, Shpritzer sued New York City on behalf o f all policew om en barred from taking the seigeant promotional test. Her battle was one o f the first by women to achieve equality through the courts. Her suit questioned whether the use o f “patrolman” as an eligible title constituted a denial o f opportunity solely because o f sex. “Nothing in the broad definition o f the duties o f Sergeant. . . are clearly im possible o f performance by policewomen because o f sex ,” declared the Appellate D ivision o f the New York State Supreme Court on January 4 ,1 9 6 2 . The court said that “the petitioner and others. . . cannot be arbitrarily denied the right to take the exam ination for Seigeant because o f their sex, and no reasonable grounds have been shown to warrant the ‘sex selection’ evidence.”44 N ew York City appealed, but the State Court o f Appeals unanim ously upheld the lower court. On March 12, 1965, Shpritzer and Policewom an Gertrude Schimmel became the first two women sergeants in the NYCPD.45 In 1955, probably to counter w om en’s dissatisfaction over the lack o f promotions and to prevent just the type o f lawsuit that Shpritzer initiated, the NYCPD increased detective positions for women. A lso, both policewomen and fem ale detectives moved into bureaus that had been male preserves, and four women held the highest rank available to them, detective first grade. Although activity on behalf o f women slowed later in the decade, there were more policewomen, more female detectives, and a greater range o f assignments in 1959 than in 1950, but in 1959 there were still only four fem ale first grade detectives.46 What seems not to have slowed was the w om en’s changing perceptions o f them selves and their place within the department. Marie Cirile, who became a policewoman in 1957, recalled that she and som e of her contemporaries felt the “ special qualities” they were believed to bring to policing were not a benefit but a handicap

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leading to isolation and sex-based segregation. Indicating that differences taken for granted by the first generation o f policew om en had becom e a source o f frustration and unhappiness, she wrote: Within a day or two o f being assigned to the academy, we fem ales became aware that w e were ‘different.’ Although we were issued the same training manuals . . . attended the same classes . . . , took the same com petitive tests, we weren’t allow ed to be entered into competition with the men for trophies and awards issued to each graduating class. The reason. . . was that the women usually did better. . . academically, and if they [the women] were awarded the trophies, it would rem ove this incentive from the men.47 Thus, educational superiority and sex segregation were now perceived by many o f the women as liabilities; they were to com pete only among them selves, whether it be for awards, choice assignments, or the very lim ited opportunities for upward mobility. When Melchionne addressed the IACP in 1959, she called the policewoman “the alter ego o f the patrolman,” but stressed that “policewomen are detailed to police assignments which can most effectively be performed by women.” Her remarks indicate the fine line she walked m aintaining a separate sphere for women while avoiding allowing the department to “relegate” women “to the status o f an incidental ancillary specialist.” Melchionne’s message to the chiefs switched between praising die women detectives and proudly recounting their new assignments, while also noting that women continue to be “primarily concerned with the protection of women and children.”48 M elchionne seem ed to duplicate H iggins’ efforts to carve out a unique role for women that would also provide for professional growth. H iggins, too, while stressing how far women had com e from 1910 when A lice Stebbins W ells became the nation’s first officially designated “policew om an,” continued to describe the value o f women in policing in terms o f gender. Writing in 1960 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary o f W ells’ appointment, Higgins postulated that if policewom en were in policing to stay, it is not because they have tried to compete against men in work that always has been and always w ill be predominantly a

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man’s job. It is because they have brought. . . talents that are peculiarly feminine-usually a highly developed interest in human relationships-and have accentuated, rather than subordinated, their fem ininity.49

MORE WOMEN, MORE VIEWPOINTS But by the start o f the 1960s the more than five thousand and five hundred policewom en no longer held a m onolithic view o f themselves in the police environment. Higgins and many o f her generation continued to view women within the context o f their separate sphere, while others, often younger, rarely supervisors, and usually more involved in direct “hands-on” police activities, sought an even wider, less gender based set o f roles and responsibilities than had been achieved in the 1950s. These younger women, products o f an activist, rather than a quiet 1950s, would not prevail for another decade. The view s o f M elchionne, H iggins, and supporters o f the expanded role o f women within a gender context summarized the decade but unwittingly set the tone o f the com ing debate for greater equality. Even N ew York’s Felicia Shpritzer, who later became an advocate for total equality, was unable to predict that this would be women’s future in policing. In a discussion just prior to her lawsuit o f areas where fem ale sergeants could be used, she listed positions in the women’s bureau, juvenile aid, m issing persons, special services (which included pickpocket and confidence squads), and the police academy, noting that “it would be m isuse o f policewom en sergeants to assign them to a precinct to direct uniformed men on patrol duty, the im age conjured up in the mind o f the average patrolman when promotion for women is discussed.” 50 Indicative o f how attitudes and individuals changed within only a few years, when Lieutenant Shpritzer retired at the mandatory age o f sixtythree on November 23, 1974, she was serving as second in com mand of a precinct, doing exactly what she had termed a “m isuse” o f women, namely, supervising uniformed officers, men and women, on patrol in New York C ity’s East V illage.51 Despite their own portrayal o f them selves in a gender context, as women gained numerically in the postwar decade, and as a changing society led to altered definitions o f w om en’s sphere, police-

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women moved further away from their original role o f dealing solely with women and children and societal housekeeping functions. However, assignment to a greater range o f police activities was still rooted in concepts o f gender and wom en’s sphere; in most instances policewomen were still handling matters involving juveniles or other women. Other assignm ents, such as when wom en were assigned to vice or narcotics with a male partner because a male/fem ale team would not be suspected o f being police officers and could enter or explain their presence in areas that tw o men could not, were based on sex. In such instances, there was no consideration o f whether the assignm ent was too dangerous or outside wom en’s sphere; the decision to use the fem ale officer was made solely on investigative requirements. This eventually provided an opening for women to expand their roles further and for police departments to use their services in yet untapped areas. What was unique about the 1950s was that a combination o f factors inside and outside police departments led many o f the women hired during and after World War II to become dissatisfied with the limitations imposed by w om en’s sphere. Their increased numbers and greater range o f assignm ents, combined with differences in their own educational and class orientation made change inevitable. Additionally, younger policew om en became convinced that segregation based on either sex or gender was hampering their chances for lateral or upward career mobility. New assignments also brought them into closer contact with policem en. They saw that even men who were not in traditional uniform patrol had greater career opportunities. Men were eligible for transfer to any bureau. More importantly, men were eligible for civil service promotions that could greatly enhance their status and their incomes. Once wom en’s duties expanded beyond their limited (and lim iting) roles, forces outside policing throughout the 1960s continued to spur additional demands by them for greater participation in ever widening areas of policing. In 1963 Congress passed die Equal Pay Act, which prohibited unequal pay between the sexes for equal work. This was, of course, follow ed by the 1964 C ivil Rights Act, until 1972 enforceable only against private employers o f twentyfive or more people whose business involved inter-state commerce. Another pre-1972 impetus towards equal employment was the

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Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA), a Justice Department agency created under the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets A ct o f 1968. Forty percent o f the funds for law enforcement dispensed by LEAA went to local governments. The Crime Control Act o f 1973, which amended the 1968 Act, specified that grantees were prohibited from discriminating in employment practices. Additionally, in 1969 President Richard M. N ixon issued Executive Order 11478, which declared that the federal government could not use sex as a qualification for hiring. In 1971 both the Executive Protective Service and the Secret Service hired fem ale agents, and by July 1972 the FBI had assigned two women to its academy for training as Special Agents. In 1972, when Title VII was extended to states and m unicipalities, Congress also passed the R evalue Sharing Act, which prohibited discriminatory use o f revenue sharing funds and allowed the Treasury Department to withhold funds from jurisdictions engaged in unlawful employment practices. C ollectively, these new laws meant that police departments faced not only political pressure and lawsuits, but loss o f funds, if their hiring and promotional policies were deemed unlawful. This expansion o f civil rights activity coalesced at a time when the wom en who had entered policing in the 1950s were slow ly m oving up the ranks and changing the nature o f w om en’s participation in policing. Hence, contrary to popular interpretation, Title VII did not create the demands for greater opportunity, it merely provided new legal support for demands that had already changed wom en’s roles w ithin policing. As part o f the continuum, today’s women police officers have used the C ivil Rights Act to build upon previously won promotional rights and earlier court support, and to demand hill sexual equality in hiring, assignment, and promotion. Viewed from a generational perspective, the numerical gains and expanded roles achieved by policewomen in the 1950s laid the groundwork for today’s activism. The issues that arose for policewom en in the 1960s and 1970s were formed in the post-World War II period. Although som e o f the 1950s policewom en would ultim ately leave rather than accept the new sexual equality their own demands helped precipitate, these post-war policewom en played a major role in the transition policewomen made from social workers to crimefighters.

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ENDNOTES 1. Leila J. Rupp and Verta Taylor, Survival in the Doldrums: The Am erican Women’s Rights M ovement, 1945 to the 1960s (New York: Oxford University

Press, 1987), 176. 2. Susan Ehrlich Martin, Breaking and Entering: Policewom en on Patrol (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1980), 24. 3. Lois Lundell Higgins, “Women and Crime-Cherchez La Femme.” Speech delivered at the 29th Women Peace Officers Association of California Conference, San Diego, CA, May 22,1956. Photocopied. 4. Martin, Breaking and Entering, 24 In a 1957 address, Lois Lundell Higgins, “The Feminine Force in Crime Prevention,” The Police Yearbook 1958 (Proceedings of the 64th Annual Conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, Honolulu, HI, Sept. 29-OcL 3,1957), 106, stated that in addition to 2,500 policewomen in at least 150 U.S. cities, there were more than 2,000 women serving as deputy sheriffs and in federal agencies with police functions, including the Bureau of Customs and the Bureau of Immigration. She estimated that policewomen were about one percent of the total police profession. 5. Lois Lundell Higgins, “Women in Law Enforcement: A Special Survey on Policewomen Throughout the United States,” Law and Order, Apr. 1958,22. 6. Rupp and Taylor, Survival in the Doldrums, vii. 7. Ibid. 8. June Sochen, M overs and Shakers: American Women Thinkers and A ctivists, 1900-1970 (New York: Quadrangle/The New York Times Book Co., 1973), 174-175. For a recent reiteration of the view of the 1950s as a time when marriage, children, and a stylish home were deemed the epitome of most women’s goals, see sociologist Wini Breines, Young, White, and M iserable: Growing Up Female in the Fifties (Boston: Beacon, 1992). 9. Wilson espoused a limited role for policewomen as early as 1942 in a management survey he conducted for the Hartford, Connecticut, Police Department, stating that the juvenile division should not be headed by a policewoman but a male officer “because of the necessity” of close cooperation with other divisions, the supervision of other male officers, “and of the tendency toward emotional instability which women display when under constant pressure.” See O.W. Wilson, Report o f Police Department Survey, Hartford, Connecticut (Chicago: Public Administration Service, 1942), 49, 115-116, 117; O.W. Wilson, Police Administration (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1950), 125-126,217; 2d ed (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1953), 290, 334-335; also O.W. Wilson and Roy C. McLaren, Police Adm inistration, 3d and 4th ed (New York: McGraw Hill, 1972 and 1977). Wilson’s views on women were not new. Nancy F. Cott, The Grounding o f M odern Feminism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987), 216, notes that in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries prejudice existed against women entering various professions because of “long-standing stereotypes” that they “were presumed to be emotional, subjective, irrational, and personal.”

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10. Thomas J. Deakin, Police Professionalism: The Renaissance o f American Law Enforcement (Springfield, EL: Charles C Thomas, 1988), 225; Samuel Walter, The P olice in America: An Introduction (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1983), 16. 11. Walker, The Police in Am erica, 17; Deakin, Police Professionalism, 22.

12. Felicia Shpritzer, “A Case for the Promotion of Policewomen in the City of New York,” Journal o f Criminal Law, C rim inology and Police Science 50, no. 4 (Nov.-Dee. 1959): 417. According to one historian, blade officers were unhappy with Parker. A “sore issue” was promotions for blacks, yet in 1950 he appointed black policewoman Vivian Strange, an officer since 1943, to the rank of sergeant, making her the first black female sergeant in the LAPD. An additional black female sergeant was also named during Parker’s tenure. See Joseph J. Woods, The Progressives and The Police : Urban Reform and the Professionalism o f the Los Angeles Police (Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms, 1979), 460 and Homer F. Broome, Jr., LAPD’s Black H istory 1886-1976 (Norwalk, CA: Stockton Trade Press, 1977), 215,216. 13. Higgins, “Women in Law Enforcement: A Special Survey on Policewomen Throughout the United States,” 22. 14. O.W. Wilson, ed, Parker on P olice (Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas, 1957), 27. Part of Parker’s awareness of women no doubt came from the fact that one year after joining the LAPD in 1927 he married an LA policewoman. See Woods, The Progressives and The P olice, 419. 15. Anne Findlay Patton, “Women Officers of the San Diego Police Department, 1912-1988," M.A. thesis, University of San Diego, 1989, 85, 94, 104, 107-109, 111, 125, 127-128, 150. Whether due to Jansen’s disdain for social workers or whether the women’s recollections were colored by the modem role of women in policing, none mentioned social service or youth assignments during interviews with Patton. 16. U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Police Service fo r Juveniles (Washington, DC: GPO, 1954), 70,71. 17. Lois Lundell Higgins, D ope-ology: A rticles and Lectures (Chicago: Police Department, 1953), 40; Lois Lundell Higgins, “The Policewoman,” Police, Nov.Dee. 1958,66. 18. Who’s Who in American Law Enforcement, 3d ed (North Miami, FL: American Law Enforcement Officers Association, 1980), ix; International Association of Women Police. Miscellaneous articles, letters, documents, and typed copies of board of directors meetings covering the years 1956-1984, received by author from Higgins, Lois Lundell, IAWP President, 1956-1964, and Ostrander, Mary Rita, IAWP President, 1966-1970; Lois Lundell Higgins, interview with author, Miami, FL, Jan. 2 2 ,1990. 19. Lois Lundell Higgins, “Women Police Service,” Journal o f Criminal Law, Crim inology and Police Science 41, no. 1 (June 1950): 104-105. 20. Higgins, “Women and Crime-Cherchez La Femme,” n.p. 21. International Association of Women Police. Miscellaneous material received by author; Higgins, interview with author, Jan. 22,1990.

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WOMEN & CRIMINAL JUSTICE

22. Lois Lundell Higgins, “Golden Anniversary of Women in Police Service,”

Law and Order ; Aug. 1960,14.

23. Higgins, interview with author, Jan. 22, 1990. The policewomen’s concerns over confusion between themselves and non-swom women were well founded Newspapers, magazines, and even some police departments labelled matrons, crossing guards and parking enforcement agents “policewomen.” These women often received more attention than sworn policewomen. In 1952, according to “New Orleans Has Women Traffic Cops,” The Police Journal, June 1952, 24, the city hired thirty-two civil service “lady traffic ‘cops’” to work fifteen hours weekly, hoping to expand use of these “patrolwomen” to school zones. Pasadena, TX, according to Varreece Berry, “Pasadena (Texas) Policewomen Protect School Crossings,” L aw and Order, Dec. 1955, 6,16, also called its eleven part-time crossing guards “policewomen,” requiring that they be PTA and church members, have high standing in the community, be between 25 and 35 years of age, and be willing to accept assignment to a school their child attended In “Women Tough Traffic Police,” The P olice Journal, Jan., Feb., Mar. 1955,24, the terms traffic guards, parking checkers, and female police are use interchangeably in a five paragraph article. 24. Lois Lundell Higgins, “The Feminine Force in Crime Prevention,” The P olice Yearbook 1958 (Proceedings of the 64th Annual Conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, Honolulu, HL Sept 29-Oct 3,1957), 102, 108-109. 25. Higgins, interview with author, Jan. 22,1990. 26. International Association of Women Police. Miscellaneous material received by author; International Association of Women Police, Official Program . Erst Biennial Conference and Seminar, Lafayette, IN, Sept 30-Oct 2, 1958. There was no mention at the conference of the two women who had been assigned to foot patrol in and around downtown Pheonix in 1957. One of the women, Pat Lamson, recalled that she and her partner, both from the juvenile division, initially patrolled in plainclothes. In 1958 and 1959 two uniformed policewomen were assigned to parking enforcement one walked a beat handling “anything and everything,” and another controlled traffic at a major intersection. (Letter to the author from Bruce B. Drewett, Jan. 15, 1989; letter to Bruce B. Drewett from Patricia Lamson, undated sent to the author, Sept 30,1991.) 27. Irvin K. Juergensmeyer, “Problems of Policewomen.” Paper presented at the 1st Biennial International Association of Women Police Conference, Lafayette, IN, SepL 30-Oct 2,1958. Microfiched. 28. Lois Lundell Higgins, “The Feminine Arm of the Law: Women in Crime.” Papa* presented at the 1st Biennial International Association of Women Police Conference, Lafayette, IN, Sept. 30-Oct. 2, 1958. Microfiched. 29. International Association of Women Police. Miscellaneous material received by author. 30. Higgins, “Women in Law Enforcement: A Special Survey on Policewomen Throughout the United States,” 22. Although Higgins indicates her numbers came from department responses to her questionnaire, they are higher than those

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29

in annual reports and other references. Regardless, the differences are not significant in determining policies toward women officers. 31. Annual Report o f the P olice Departm ent, C ity o f N ew York, F or The Year 1953, 76-77; City of Chicago, Police Department. Annual Report. Year Ending D ecem ber 3 1 ,1 9 5 3 , 54 32. Official M agazine. Chicago Patrolmen’s Association 3, no. 2 (Dec.-Jan. 1956): 33; no. 5 (June-July 1956): 49; City of Chicago, Police Department. Annua l R eport. Year Ending D ecem ber 3 1 ,1 9 5 5 , 71; City of Chicago, Police D e p a rtment. Annual Report. Year Ending D ecem ber 3 1 ,1 9 5 6 , 71; Shpritzer, “A Case for the Promotion of Policewomen in the City of New York,” 417. 33. Official M agazine. Chicago Patrolmen’s Association 3, no. 4 (Apr.-May 1956): 39; no. 5 (June-July 1956): cover, 3. 34. City of Chicago, Police Department. Annual R eport. Year Ending 1956, 67. Indicative of the crazy-quilt pattern of opportunities for upward mobility for women, Cleveland, whose twenty-five women were about two percent o f the force, included during the decade sergeants, lieutenants, and one captain, all of whom earned their positions by competitive civil service exam. See Shpritzer, “A Case for the Promotion of Policewomen in the City of New York,” 417. By 1959 Cleveland (Police Annual Report. Cleveland, Ohio, 1959, 31), also joined the many cities that had succumbed to picturing its female officers in firearms training when five, in street clothes and high heels, were photographed at the firing range. 35. Margaret Snow, “Women’s Role in Crime Control.” The Police Yearbook 1956 (Proceedings of the 62nd Annual Conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, Philadelphia, PA, Oct. 2-6,1955), 73; Shpritzer, “A Case for the Promotion of Policewomen in the City of New York,” 417; Higgins, “Women in Law Enforcement: A Special Survey on Policewomen Throughout the United States,” 22. 36. Snow, “Women’s Role in Crime Control,” 71-79. 37. Annual R eport o f the P olice Departm ent, City o f N ew York, For The Year 1 9 5 0 , 83. According to Higgins, “Women in Law Enforcement: A Special Survey on Policewomen Throughout the United States,” 24, Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, New Haven, and Washington, DC, had female lieutenants. Women captains worked in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Washington, DC, Seattle, Portland, and Tacoma. Denver’s women could take the sergeant exam for salary advancement only, but not for rank. 38. Annual Report o f the Police Departm ent, City o f N ew York, For The Year 1 9 5 0 , 35, 36; Annual Report o f the Police Departm ent, C ity o f N ew York, F or The Year 1 9 5 1 , 7; Shpritzer, “A Case for the Promotion of Policewomen in the City of New York,” 416,417. 39. “From Police Officer to Professor (via Deputy Commissioner),” Spring 3100, Nov./Dec. 1989,32. 40. Ibid.; Annual R eport o f the Police D epartm ent, C ity o f N ew York, F or The Year 1 9 5 3 , 76-77; Annual Report o f the P olice D epartm ent, C ity o f New York, For

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The Year 1952, 76, 79; S.E. Rink, “ ’Airesting Females’: The Policewoman’s Story,” Law and Order, Nov. 1953,7.

41. Lucy Acerra, “From Matron to Commanding Officer Women’s Changing Role in Law Enforcement,” in L aw Enforcement Bible, ed, Robert A. Scanlan (South Hackensack, NJ: Stoeger Publishing, 1978), 133. 42. Annual R eport o f die Police D epartm ent, City o f New York, F or The Year 1 9 5 4 , 16. 43. Shpritzer v Lang, 32 Misc. 2nd 693, 1961, modified and affirmed, 234 NYS 2nd 285,1962. Shpritzer, “ACase for the Promotion of Policewomen in the City of New York,” 418. 44. Shpritzer v Lang. Not all lawsuits to force police departments to change discriminatory policies resulted in favorable rulings. In 1967, Philadelphia Policewoman Ruth Wells unsuccessfully challenged her department’s policy of requiring both an oral and a written exam for women who sought promotion to sergeant, while men required only a written exam. The court ruled that since the two sexes did not compete against one another and since their duties were different, it was not a denial of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment for the tests to be different Wells v C ivil Service Commission (423 Pa 608, 225 A. 2nd 554) is cited in Milton, Women in Policing, 54. 45. Felicia Shpritzer, interview with author, New York City, Nov. 22,1991. 46. Acerra, “From Matron to Commanding Officer,” 134; Theresa M. Melchionne, “The Role of Policewomen in the Investigative Function,” The Police Yearbook 1956 (Proceedings of the 66th Annual Conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, New York, New York, Sept 27-Oct 1, 1959), 170. 47. Marie Cirile, D etective M arie C irile: M emoirs o f a Police Officer (New York: Doubleday & Co., 1975), 10,13. 48. Melchionne, “The Role of Policewomen in the Investigative Function,” 166,167,170. 49. Higgins, “Golden Anniversary of Women in Police Service,” 4. 50. Shpritzer, “A Case for the Promotion of Policewomen in the City of New York,” 418. 51. Shpritzer, interview with author, Nov. 22,1991.

3

[ ] Women on the Move?: A Report on the Status of Women in Policing Susan E. Martin

A BSTR A C T. Since the passage o f the 1972 Amendments to the Civil Rights Act, many police departments have eliminated discriminatory personnel policies, but the impact o f these changes is largely unexplored. This article examines evidence o f change in the status of women in municipal police agencies in the past decade, based on the responses o f 319 agencies serving populations over 50,000 to a mail survey. The data indicate that the proportion of women in large and medium-sized police departments has increased from 4.2 percent of sworn personnel in 1978 to 8.8 percent in 1986. The proportion of women supervisors also has increased during the same period. Currently women are accepted as recruits in proportion to their representation among the applicants, but they still constitute a small proportion (20 percent) o f the applicant pool. Women now are assigned to field operations units (principally patrol) in proportion to their representation in policing. Affirmative action policies have had a major impact on the current entry rate and overall representation o f women in policing although some changes have occurred across the board. The paper concludes with some policy recommendations for accelerating the slow pace o f change in the status o f women in policing. Susan E. Martin, PhD in Sociology from American University, is Project D irector at the Police Foundation in Washington, DC. Correspondence should be addressed to Susan E. Martin, Police Foundation, 1001 22nd St. NW , Washington, DC 20037. The study o f the status o f women in policing has been supported by the Ford Foundation.

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For more than half a century after the first sworn fem ale entered policing in 1910, wom en officers were selected according to separate criteria from men, employed as “ policew om en,” and limited to working with “ w om en, children and typewriters” (M ilton, 1972). It was only with the passage o f the 1972 Amendments to the Civil Rights A ct o f 1964, that extended coverage to state and local government em ployees, that women officers obtained the right to an equal opportunity in a law enforcement career. Since that date, many departments, often under the threat o f a court order, have eliminated discriminatory personnel policies. Just how far these changes have gone, however, is uncertain. Several studies conducted in the 1970s affirm atively answered the question o f whether fem ale officers could perform patrol work (Bloch and Anderson, 1974; Sherman, 1975; Sichel et a l., 1978) and identified the problems and coping strategies o f the first generation o f women assigned to patrol work (Martin, 1980). In this decade, however, examinations o f the problems and progress o f women officers have been rare (but see Hunt, 1984a and 1984b and Morash and Greene, 1986). Even accurate statistical information often is unavailable. The FBI’s Uniform Crime Report annually provides statistics on the number o f fem ale officers in various agencies, but data on officer sex and race, rank, and assignments are “ shockingly lim ited” (Walker, 1985). Several surveys o f personnel practices (Fyfe, 1987; Sulton and Tow nsey, 1981) have found continuing changes in police agencies’ selection criteria. A s a result, Fyfe (1987:17) concluded, “ the traditional view o f policing as a nearly exclusively white male occupation is quickly becom ing outmoded . . . in virtually every population category'and geographic region.” Nonetheless, these studies did not examine changes in promotional practices or turnover rates. How have the variety o f contradictory social and political changes occurring in this decade affected w om en’s progress in policing? What have been the impacts o f w om en’s increasing labor force participation and the Justice Department’s restrictive interpretation o f the Civil Rights Act and acceptable affirmative action policies on the integration o f women in policing? Has the passage o f time alone or in combination with increases in the number o f

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women officers affected their integration into police work and their promotion into supervisory positions? This paper explores evidence o f change in the status o f women in policing in the past decade, examines the impact o f affirmative action policies on these changes, and suggests additional policy changes needed to bring about full equality for women officers. It is based primarily on findings from a survey of police agencies that is part o f a larger study o f wom en in policing currently being conducted at the Police Foundation.

METHODOLOGY The national mail survey o f police personnel practices was designed to explore departmental policies and actual practices regarding recruitment, selection, and promotion; the representation of female officers by ethnic group, rank, and assignment; male and female turnover rates; and other personnel policies affecting women including affirmative action, sexual harassment, and pregnancy and maternity leave. The survey instrument was reviewed by a number o f former police officials and pretested in three agencies. Questionnaires were sent to all 446 municipal police departments serving populations of 50,000 and all state police agencies.1 This sample was selected because it had been used by Sulton and Townsey (1981) to conduct their 1978 survey o f women in policing, and, therefore, permitted comparison o f the data at two points in tim e.2 The response rate w as high: 72 percent o f the municipal departments (N = 319) returned usable surveys.3 Table 1, showing the response rates by size o f city served, indicates that departments serving populations over 250,000 were more likely to respond than those serving cities with populations between 50,000 and 250,000. This is probably due to the greater likelihood that large agencies have planning and analysis units that routinely provide data of the kind w e sought. Data analyses included descriptive statistics and multivariate techniques to explore the relative importance o f such factors as region, city size, the proportion o f women in the agency in 1978, proportion o f minority officers, change in agency size since 1982, and the presence o f affirm ative action policies on several dependent

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WOMEN & CRIMINAL JUSTICE TABLE 1 DISTRIBUTION OF SURVEYS AND RESPONSES OF MUNICIPAL DEPARTMENTS BY SIZE NUMBER SENT

NUMBER RESPONDING

RESPONSE RATE

6

6

100

500-Million

17

15

250-500,000

37

34

88

100-250,000

119

85

64

50-100,000

26?

179

67

TOTAL

446

319

72

Million +

89

variables. These include the representation o f fem ale officers and supervisors in 1986; the proportions o f fem ales among applicants, persons selected as new recruits, those beginning and com pleting recruit training; the percentage o f persons promoted to sergeant and lieutenant; and the male and fem ale turnover rates in 1986.

REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN POLICING The proportion o f women among sworn police personnel has grown steadily since 1972. In that year a survey o f cities serving populations o f 250,000 or more found that women comprised only 2 percent o f uniformed law enforcement personnel (ICM A, 1972) and, in virtually all o f the agencies surveyed, women were excluded from patrol duties. By 1978 wom en made up 4.2 percent o f sworn personnel in m unicipal departments serving populations over 50,000 and, by the end o f 1986, wom en’s representation had risen to 8.8 percent o f all sworn officers in these agencies. Table 2 compares the representation o f women in municipal police departments in 1978 and 1986 by size o f jurisdiction served and officer ethnicity. It indicates that in both 1978 and 1986, w om en’s representation in policing w as directly related to city size, that there has been growth in the proportion o f women across all size catego-

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Susan E. Martin TABLE 2 MEAN PERCENTAGE OF FEMALE POLICE IN MUNICIPAL DEPARTMENTS BY CITY SIZE, ETHNICITY AND YEAR 197B CITY SIZE

WHITE MINORITY (N-290) (H-290)

1986 TOTAL (N-290)

WHITE (N-316)

MINORITY (N-316)

TOTAL (N-316)

Million +

2.5

3.3

5.8

5.7

2.2

4.3

10.4

500-1M

2.1

4.7

4.5

4.8

250-500

3.0

1.3

9.3

4.3

6.1

3.0

9.1

100-250

2.9

•9

3.8

.4

2.6

1.5

6.8

50-100

2.2

5.3 4.0

TOTAL

2.6

1.6

.9

4.2

4.9

5.3

3.5

8.8

ries, but the increases are larger in the larger departments. In cities over a m illion, for exam ple, women made up 5 .8 percent o f the officers in 1978 and 10.4 percent in 1986; in cities o f 50,000 to 100,000, they made up only 2.6 percent o f the total in 1978 and 4 .9 percent in 1986. The table also shows that in both years minority women made up a disproportionately large share o f all women in policing (38 percent o f all the women in 1978 and 40 percent in 1986). Furthermore, minority but not white fem ales’ representation was closely related to city size. In 1978 minority women constituted 3.3 percent o f the total sworn personnel in the cities serving populations over a m illion but only .4 percent in cities serving populations between 50,000 and 100,000. In 1986 the figures in these two size categories were 4 .7 and .9 respectively. Table 3 shows the representation o f officers in municipal agencies in 1986 by race and sex. Although minority women made up only 3.5 percent o f all officers w hile minority males made up 19 percent, the representation o f minority women among women officers in 1986 (40 percent) was nearly twice that o f minority men among all men police officers (21 percent). The large proportion o f minority (m ostly black) women among

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WOMEN & CRIMINAL JUSTICE TABLE 3 1986 KEAN PERCENTAGE OF POLICE IN MUNICIPAL DEPARTMENTS BY SEX AND ETHNICITY ETHNICITY

MALE

FEMALE

WHITE

72.2

5.3

MINORITY

19.0

3.5

TOTAL

100%

100%

women in policing may be attributed to several factors. Black women may view policing as an attractive occupational alternative in comparison with the relatively narrower range o f occupational options open to them due to differences in education and patterns o f discrimination; it offers a step up in both prestige and pay from factory and dom estic work. H istorically black women have worked in various occupations involving physical labor so may be less put o ff by this aspect o f police work than white wom en. In addition, municipal police agencies may be disproportionately recruiting and selecting minority wom en to enable them sim ultaneously to meet affirmative action goals related to racial and sexual integration. Regional differences in the proportion o f women in policing were sm all but related to variations in minority representation. Women constituted 7 .6 percent o f all officers in the w est, where the proportion o f minority wom en is the sm allest and 9 .4 percent o f the officers in the south, where the proportion o f minority wom en is the largest.

REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN SUPERVISORY POSITIONS Table 4 show s the proportion o f women police supervisors in 1978 and 1986 by ethnicity and city size.4 It indicates that w om en’s representation in the supervisory ranks lags behind their presence in policing in general and that the changes over the eight year study period were smaller than overall increases in wom en’s presence in

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TABLE 4 KEAN PERCENTAGE OF FEMALE SUPERVISORS IN MUNICIPAL DEPARTMENTS BY CITY SIZE, ETHNICITY, AND YEAR 1978 CITY SIZE

MINORITY WHITE (N-290) (N-290)

1986 TOTAL (N-290)

WHITE (N-316)

MINORITY (N-316)

TOTAL (N=316)

1.2

.5

1.7

2.5

1.1

3.6

.4

.2

.6

2.4

1.8

4.2

250-500

1.0

.1

1.1

3.1

1.2

4.4

100-250

.7

.2

•9

2.3

.4

2.7

50-100

.5

.2

.7

1.1

.3

1.4

TOTAL

.8

.2

1.0

2.3

1.0

3.3

Million + 500-1M

*

Includes ranks of sergeant, lieutenant and above.

policing. More specifically, in 1978 women made up one percent o f municipal police supervisors, only 20 percent o f whom were minority w om en. In 1986 wom en made up 3.3 percent o f all supervisors, 30 percent o f whom were m inorities. Thus minority women continue to be underrepresented in supervisory ranks in policing but made gains on their white fem ale counterparts. The size o f the jurisdiction made little difference in fem ale representation in supervisory ranks in 1978 because wom en’s representation w as so uniformly negligible. In 1986 a higher proportion o f women supervisors was found in agencies serving populations over 250,000 than those in the smaller cities. Although the proportion o f wom en supervisors more than tripled from 1978 to 1986, the increase o f 2.3 percent in women police supervisors indicates sim ply a change from the minuscule to the minute. Furthermore, most fem ale supervisors are still at the rank o f sergeant; the higher the rank, the smaller the percentage o f women in it. In 1986, for exam ple, women made up 3 .7 percent o f all sergeants, 2.5 percent o f all lieutenants, and 1.4 percent o f the higher ranking command staff in municipal police agencies. Thus

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WOMEN & CRIMINAL JUSTICE

wom en’s virtual exclusion from upper level management in police departments is similar to their near invisibility in corporate board rooms and law partnerships.5 Data on the proportion o f male and fem ale officers eligible for promotion that actually were promoted or likely to be in 1986, however, are somewhat more encouraging. A s shown in Table 5 , although 6.8 percent o f all persons eligible for promotion to the rank o f sergeant were fem ale, 8 .8 percent o f those actually promoted were female; sim ilarly, at the rank o f lieutenant, wom en made up 2.7 percent o f those eligible but 3.5 percent o f those actually promoted or likely to have becom e lieutenants in 1986. Furthermore with only one exception (agencies in cities with populations under 100,000) wom en “ beat the odds” and were promoted in proportions greater than would be expected on the basis o f their representation in the eligible pool for sergeant and lieutenant. Both the proportion o f women eligible for promotion and the rate at which women were promoted were directly related to size o f the city served; the larger the city, the higher the percentage o f wom en among those promoted. The biggest gains for wom en came in departments serving populations over half a m illion, where women made up 9.5 percent o f those eligible for promotion and 15.8 percent o f those that achieved the rank o f sergeant in 1986. At the rank o f lieutenant, wom en made the biggest gains in cities serving populations between 250,000 and 500,000, making up 7 .7 percent o f those promoted. TABLE 5 WOMEN'S PROMOTIONS IN MUNICIPAL DEPARTMENTS BY CITY SIZE SERGEANT CITY SIZE

MEAN % ELIGIBLE (N-192)

LIEUTENANT MEAN % PROMOTED (N-192)

MEAN % ELIGIBLE (N-157)

MEAN % PROMOTED (N-157)

> 500,000

9.5

15.8

2.9

3.4

250,000-500,000

6.1

8.0

3.1

7.7

100,000-250,000

6.6

7.1

3.0

3.2

50,000-100,000

4.5

6.2

1.8

.9

TOTAL

6.8%

8.8%

2.7%

3.5%

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29

The low proportion o f women in police supervisory positions and the slow pace o f w om en’s promotions are hardly surprising for several reasons. First, all police supervisors begin as officers and become eligible for promotion only after several years o f service at the entry-level rank. Among the 226 municipal agencies that provided promotion data, 41 (18 percent) indicated that no women were eligible for promotion to sergeant in 1986 although men were eligible for promotion in all o f them. The promotional criteria also affect w om en’s promotional opportunities and actual promotion rates. Some promotional system s give substantial weight to seniority (beyond m inim al eligib ility requirem ents) w hich still handicaps women although in another decade the effects o f seniority w ill largely disappear. Two other factors that have limited wom en’s promotional opportunities to an unknown extent are the inclusion o f bonus points on promotional scores for veterans and consideration o f supervisor’s evaluations in more than half the responding departments. Although job performance is a relevant consideration in a promotion system , effective measures o f police performance have not been developed; most rating system s tend to be subjective, and are open to cronyism . In agencies that place greater weight on objective measures such as written examinations (used in the vast majority o f departments in making promotions to both ranks) and assessment centers (a series o f written and oral exercises presented to outside examiners), w om en’s opportunities for m oving into middle management increase. In fact, the percentage o f eligible women promoted to sergeant w as significantly higher in agencies using an assessment center as part o f the promotional process than those that did not after controlling for agency size and region.

WOMEN’S ASSIGNMENTS Data on the distribution o f fem ales by type o f assignment and city size is shown in Table 6. The total fem ales column on the left shows women as a proportion o f all officers. In each column to the right, the representation o f women in the specific bureau or division is shown. Several caveats are necessary in interpreting this table. First, in

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WOMEN & CRIMINAL JUSTICE TABLE 6 1986 PERCENTAGE OF FEMALE OFFICERS IN MUNICIPAL DEPARTMENTS BY TYPE ASSIGNMENT AND CITY SIZE

CITY SIZE

TOTAL FEMALES (N-293)

FIELD (N-292)

CID (N-293)

VICE (N-250)

ADMIN (N—283)

OTHER (N-196)

Million +

9.9

10.9

7.9

9.6

17.5

500-1M

9.9

10.3

6.7

12.4

7.4

11.6

250-500

8.8

8.9

7.0

10.9

7.2

10.8

10.2

100-250

6.6

7.1

5.0

6.7

5.7

6.3

50-100,000

5.1

5.3

5.3

3.6

4.1

4.5

TOTAL

8.4

9.2

6.6

7.5

10.2

9.1

the assignment data provided by respondents women made up only 8.4 percent of all sworn police, thus women are slightly underrepresented. Second, in many departments some o f the officers assigned to patrol or field operations units, in fact, serve in clerical or staff support capacities. Thus the proportion o f male and fem ale officers assigned to field operations division that actually perform street patrol or related duties on a daily basis is unknown. Third, an unexpectedly large proportion o f officers appear to be assigned to “ other” units. Because agency organization charts are so diverse, assignments included in this category vary w idely among departments. The “ other” category appears to include training, personnel, internal affairs, fleet management, inspections, and community service units which alternatively are included in an administrative category in other agencies. The table shows that regardless o f city size, wom en now are assigned to the field operations units (including patrol, special operations, and traffic assignm ents) in slightly greater proportion than their overall representation in policing. Women made up 8 .4 percent o f all officers but represented 9 .2 percent o f the persons assigned to field operations. W omen generally are underrepresented in criminal investigations and vice units except in the small cities categories. They are overrepresented in administrative units except

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in cities o f less than 250,000 and in “ other” units particularly in cities with populations over 250,000. These assignment patterns are probably attributable to several factors. In virtually all agencies rookies of either sex now begin their careers on patrol. Thus the overrepresentation o f women in field operations units to some extent may reflect their newness in policing. Specialized support staff assignments make up a larger proportion of all assignments in large departments than small ones. Women appear to have taken advantage of opportunities to transfer to these assignments in disproportionately large numbers as a result of both pushes out of patrol and pulls toward staff assignments. The pushes result from the persistence of the attitude held by many policemen that most women officers are unsuited for the danger o f the street and unable to provide adequate physical back up for street officers. The pulls are due to wom en’s desire to move to a less hostile work environment, use clerical skills they may possess, and obtain daytime hours more compatible with family life than the rotating shifts o f patrol assignments. In the smaller departments, in contrast to the large ones, the limited number of “ inside” assignments tend to be reserved for injured and pre-retirement (i.e ., male) officers. Investigative and vice units tend to be more “ elite” and, therefore, more difficult for women to enter; vice assignments, in addition, tend to involve extensive overtime and evening working hours difficult to mesh with family life. For these reasons they may be less attractive to many women officers.

SEX DIFFERENCES IN OFFICER SELECTION AND TRAINING In the long run, the proportion o f female officers will be shaped by the rate at which they apply to and are accepted by police departments and the rate at which they leave policing. This section addresses the first issue; the next section examines turnover rates. Table 7 shows the proportions of persons that applied and were accepted for police jobs, and that entered and completed the training academy in municipal agencies in 1986 by sex and ethnic

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Women Police

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WOMEN & CRIMINAL JUSTICE TABLE 7 OFFICER SELECTION IN MUNICIPAL DEPARTMENTS BY CANDIDATE RACE AND SEX

MEAN PERCENTAGE OF CANDIDATES

Applicants (N-190) Accepted (N-232) Entered academy (N*246) Completed academy (N-246)

MALE

FEMALE

WHITE

MIN.

TOTAL

WHITE

50.1

29.9

80.0

u .o

50.1

29.4

79.5

53.6

26.6

55.2

25.4

MIN.

TOTAL

9.0

20.0

10,3

10.3

80.2

20.6

10.7

9.2

80.6

19.9

10.7

8.5

19.2

group. It indicates that 20 percent o f the applicants were female, that 20.6 percent of those accepted by departments were females but that only 19.9 percent of those that entered and 19.2 percent o f those that completed the academy were women. Although data are lacking on the actual qualifications o f applicants in each group, the table suggests that departments do not appear to be discriminating in their selection of rookie officers either by race or sex. At the same time, women and minorities o f both sexes were slightly less likely than white males to enter the academy and minorities failed to complete the academy a bit more often than whites. The application and training data suggest that if current selection procedures continue, over time women may make up as much as 20 percent of police personnel. If the proportion of women is to increase beyond that, however, recruiting efforts to encourage more female applicants to enter the applicant pool may be required. The nature o f police work makes it unlikely that women will ever be represented in policing in proportion to their representation in the labor force (i.e ., 45 percent o f all paid workers). How large a percentage o f officers one day may be female w ill depend not only on departmental recruiting but changes in the nature of police work and working conditions and broader redefinition o f sex roles and “ sex appropriate” behavior.

Women Police

Susan £ . Marlin

75

33

SEX DIFFERENCES IN TURNOVER The other component affecting women’s representation is turnover. This is shown in Table 8 by sex, city size, and type o f reason for separation. Total turnover for males and females during 1986 appears in the first pair o f columns on the left; to the right each of the four components o f total turnover (i.e ., disability, voluntary separations, involuntary terminations, and death but NOT normal retirement) are displayed. During 1986, 6.3 percent o f the women officers and 4.6 percent o f the male officers separated from their department. Although there were no sex differences in the rates of turnover due to disability or death, women had higher rates of both voluntary and involuntary separations than male officers. City size had virtually no effect on male turnover rates; women’s turnover, however, varied by size of jurisdiction. Female officers working in cities with over a million inhabitants tended to have lower rates of turnover than either men in those cities or women in smaller cities. These differences are due to both lower voluntary and involuntary separation rates. A variety of possible factors may explain why women in most departments are leaving policing at higher rates than men. Some officers simply discover that policing is not a job for which they are suited. Given the differences in the childhood socialization o f males and females, there may be a higher proportion of female than male “ misfits” entering policing. Other factors that probably contribute to women’s higher turnover rates include a work environment that is hostile or unpleasant for women but not for men (Martin, 1980; Hunt, 1984), difficulties in meshing policing with family life, (particularly for a single parent), and inadequate light duty/pregnancy leave policies that make having a family and continuing to work difficult or impossible. Although w e did not collect data on whether separations were due to pregnancy or the lack of available maternity leave, data obtained on the availability of light duty and pregnancy leave suggest these factors may contribute to wom en’s higher turnover. Because of the nature of police work, most police agencies permit or require pregnant officers to leave patrol assignments. Yet only 74 percent

34 9.3 7.8

4.3 4.5

TOTAL (N-293)

50-100 (N«168)

*

.8

.7

.5

.5

.6

1.7

M

.7

.8

.7

.2

.7

.9

F

DISABILITY M

3.0

3.2

3.1

3.8

2.4

2.7

F

4.3

5.2

6.7

5.0

4.4

3.0

VOLUNTARY SEPARATIONS

.6

.6

.6

.8

.6

.4

M

.3

1.2

1.7

1.9

1.7

2.2*

F

M

INVOLUNTARY TERMINATIONS

.2

.2

.1

.2

.2

.2

F

.1

.1

.2

.1

.1

.1

DEATH

In one department, 21 of 126 females (17 percent) and 28 of 1820 (1.5 percent) were involuntarily terminated in 1986. Excluding this department, the mean involuntary turnover rate for departments in this size group would be 1.4 percent for females and .5 percent for males.

6.3

7.0

5.3

100-250 (N-83)

250-500 (N-32)

4.6

7.4

3.8

500-1M (N-15)

4.2

5-1

Million + (N-5)

F

M

CITY SIZE

TOTAL TURNOVER

1986 PERCENTAGE TURNOVER IN MUNICIPAL DEPARTMENTS BY CITY SIZE, TYPE OF SEPARATION AND OFFICER SEX

TABLE 8

76 Women Police

Women Police

77

Susan E. Martin

35

o f the agencies reassign a pregnant officer to a “ light duty” assignment until delivery; 14 percent force the woman to go on leave when she can no longer continue in her “ normal” assignment (and 12 percent have not yet had to deal with a pregnancy). Many o f the women forced to leave policing for six to eight months in order to have a child, resign temporarily or permanently from their departments.

IMPACT OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION Affirmative action policies have had a major impact on both the current entry rate and overall representation of women in policing. In 1986, 15 percent of the municipal agencies that responded to our survey had court ordered affirmative action for both hiring and promotion; 42 percent had voluntary affirmative action plans in effect; and 43 percent had none. As indicated in Table 9, in agencies under court order to increase the representation of women and minorities, women made up 10.1 percent of the sworn personnel in 1986; in those with voluntary affirmative action plans, women made up 8.3 percent o f the personnel, and in those without affirmative action plans women comprised only 6.1 percent of the personnel. The effect o f affirmative action is even greater for minority women than white females. In addition, affirmative action has an impact on the proportion of women in supervisory positions; in departments with court ordered affirmative action, women make up 3.5 percent of the supervisors; in those with voluntary affirmative action 2.4 percent TABLE 9 IMPACT OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION POLICY ON REPRESENTATION OF WOKEN OFFICERS AND SUPERVISORS BY POLICY TYPE TYPE OF POLICY Court ordered (N«45) Voluntary (N»126) None (N«126) TOTAL

WHITE

MINORITY

TOTAL

TOTAL SUPERVISORS

5.7

4.4

10.1

3.5

5.5

2.8

8.3

2.4

4.1

2.0

6.1

2.2

5.3

3.5

8.8

3.5

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WOMEN & CRIMINAL JUSTICE

and those without affirmative action 2.2 percent o f the supervisory personnel. Because the representation o f women and presence of affirmative action policies is directly related to agency size, it is necessary to control for the effects o f size as w ell as region, minority representation, and the proportion o f women officers in 1978 to determine whether affirmative action policies have an independent effect. This was done by including these variables in several regression models. In all models, after controlling for these variables, both court ordered and voluntary affirmative action remained significantly associated with the proportion o f women in a department. An additional regression model that explored the factors associated with the increase in the proportion o f women from 1978 to 1986 found that the presence o f an affirmative action policy remained a significant factor in explaining the change after size and region were controlled. Analyses o f the proportion o f female applicants for police jobs in 1986 also found that women made up a significantly larger percentage of all applicants in agencies with court ordered affirmative action (20.5 percent) than those with voluntary (16.7 percent) or no affirmative action plans (12.9 percent) (N = 181; F = 9.46; p < .001). Similar differences were found in the percentage o f persons accepted as recruits. These differences remain after controlling for agency size and region. This finding suggests that where departments seek qualified female applicants they find and select them. Without additional recruiting efforts or changes in the wom en’s application rates, however, women are not likely to make up more than 20 percent o f all officers.

DISCUSSION: CHANGING PRACTICES AND POLICY NEEDS In summary, the survey findings suggest that there is good news and bad news. The good news is that the representation o f women in police departments found in each population category and geographic region has increased steadily in the past 15 years and that women are now assigned to patrol and other line units in proportion to their representation in policing. This has occurred despite Federal efforts to eliminate affirmative action programs which are found in

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37

more chan half the municipal agencies that responded to the survey. The bad news is the slow pace of change, so that women continue to be present in policing in only token numbers and, at the supervisory level either barely visible or totally absent. Whether one view s the representation o f women in policing as indicating that the proverbial glass is “ half empty” or “ half full” depends on the standard one uses to measure it. Since women make up 44.7 percent of the labor force, but only 8.8 percent o f all police officers, they are clearly underrepresented in policing. Similarly if one looks at the proportion o f women in other traditionally “ male” professions, policing appears to be lagging. According to U .S. Department of Labor data, in May 1987 women made up 21 percent o f the nation’s lawyers and judges; 15 percent o f the health diagnosing occupations; 38 percent o f all executive, administrative, and managerial personnel; 15 percent of all farm operators and managers. In comparison with other “ blue collar” skilled craft occupations, however, women in policing have done well since females made up only 4 percent of mechanics and repairers and 2 percent of workers in construction trades in May 1987 (U .S. Dept, of Labor cited by Powell, 1988:76-78). Similarly, one might optimistically celebrate the fact that between 1978 to 1986 the proportion o f women in municipal police agencies has more than doubled or more soberly note that the actual increase is only 4.6 percent, from the tiny 4 .2 percent to the modest 8.8 percent o f the sworn personnel. In all but a handful of departments women still are present in only token numbers (i.e., between 1 and 15 percent o f the workers in the occupation). Their token presence helps explain the equivocal finding that although women now are proportionately represented in the patrol or field operations divisions, their career paths seem to diverge from those o f the men in the patterns o f “ special” assignments they obtain. While men are more likely to be in investigative assignments, women tend to transfer into administrative and other staff units. Such differential career paths, which may be a response to the discomforts faced by women tokens in line assignments, may have longer-term negative impacts on wom en’s upward mobility in policing. Recruitment, selection, retention and promotion rates also paint

Women Police

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WOMEN & CRIMINAL JUSTICE

an equivocal picture regarding women’s status in police work. About 20 percent o f the current applicants and recruits are female. This suggests that once women apply there does not seem to be systematic discrimination against them. There is wide variation, however, in both application and acceptance rates. And, because women have higher turnover rates than men, more women than men need to enter policing even to maintain current sex ratios. Finally, although women are being promoted at a rate slightly higher than might be expected based on their proportion among the eligibles, at their current slow pace, women are not likely to assume departmental leadership and policy making positions for many years in more than a handful of agencies. Observations and interview data from site visits to three departments (Washington, D .C ., Birmingham, and Detroit) support many o f these conclusions from the survey data. In each o f these cities the mayor and chief consistently have implemented affirmative action policies. Their policies have not been popular with the white males but have brought substantial change. In the Detroit police department, for example, at the end o f 1986 women comprised 19 percent o f all sworn personnel and 12 percent o f the officials including 1 out of 5 deputy chiefs and 4 out o f 23 district commanders. Interviews with both male officers and supervisors in these three cities suggest that broad changes have occurred although the first generation of women paid a high price in achieving that change. Just recounting their early experiences on patrol brought outbursts o f tears or rage in a number o f the women. And while they still face occasional incidents o f outright discrimination and harassment, there is widespread agreement that the overt hostility to women officers has diminished if not disappeared. Some men may still dislike working with a female partner, but most accept the fact that “ women are here to stay” and take their presence for granted. The cohort of women now in first line supervisory positions have served on patrol, are comfortable with themselves as both effective police and as feminine women, and are confident in their ability to gain further promotions. For women the highest hurdle, gaining entrance and equal opportunities in municipal policing, has been surmounted. The challenge is to continue and accelerate the slow pace o f change in policing

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39

including that o f the status of women. Since departmental policies, particularly the implementation o f affirmative action efforts, have an important impact on that change, it is important to see that they are adopted where they are absent and continued where they exist. In the area of hiring, voluntary affirmative action efforts should focus on enlargement of the pool of recruits. This will permit selection of women without adopting quotas that cause a backlash o f resentment. While affirmative action in promotional policies also is desirable, alteration of promotional standards to eliminate criteria that are irrelevant to supervisory ability or potential, such as veterans’ preference and openly subjective ratings, would go a long way to increasing wom en’s opportunities to compete on even terms. Finally, alterations in the conditions o f work are likely to both increase the attractiveness of policing to potential recruits and reduce wom en’s turnover rates. These include increases in the number of women in recruitment and training assignments as well as high visibility supervisory positions to serve as role models for both potential recruits and women already on the job, and the adoption o f a light duty policy that permits pregnant women to remain on the job. NOTES 1. Although data were collected from 37 state police agencies, only findings for municipal agencies are presented here. 2. We subsequently discovered that the 1986 sample, based on agencies listed in the FBI’s Return B tape (used in preparing the Uniform Crime Report for 1985), included all departments in Sulton and Townsey’s 1978 survey, as well as 50 departments that they did not include. Forty-one of these departments were in the 50,000 to 100,000 size category in 1986 but previously had fewer than 50,000 inhabitants. The other nine were larger departments, six of which appear to have been used for a pretest. 3. Sulton and Townsey obtained usable surveys from 74 percent o f the municipal agencies. 4. In a small proportion o f departments the rank of corporal is the first step above officer. In some o f these agencies corporals serve as first line supervisors, in others the rank is attained through seniority and corporals function like senior officers. Furthermore, in a few agencies sergeants may be investigators rather than supervisors. Because w e lacked specific information about the responsibilities o f corporals and sergeants, for the purposes o f data analysis, corporals were included in the rank o f officer and sergeants were presumed to be supervisors. 5. In 1985 only 2 percent o f the top corporate executives o f Fortune 500 com-

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WOMEN & CRIMINAL JUSTICE

panies were women (Powell 1988:75) and 6 percent o f law firm partners were women according to a study conducted by the A B A ’s Commission on Women in the Profession (Washington Post 1988:A1).

REFERENCES Bloch, P. and D . Anderson 1974 Policewomen on Patrol: Final Report. Washington: Urban Institute. Fyfe, J. 1987 P olice Personnel Practices, 1986. (Baseline Data Report Volume 18, Number 6). Washington, DC: International City Management Association. Hunt, J. 1984a “ The Development o f Rapport Through the Negotiation o f Gender in Field Work among P olice.” Human Organization 43:283-296. Hunt, J. 1984b The Logic o f Sexism among Police. Unpublished manuscript presented at American Society o f Criminology, November, 1984 in Cincinnati, Ohio. International City Management Association 1972 “ Personnel Practices in Municipal Police Departments” Urban Data Service 5. Kanter, R.M . 1977 Men and Women o f the Corporation. New York: Basic Books. Martin, S.E . 1980 “ Breaking and E n te r in g P o lic e w o m e n on Patrol. Berkeley: University o f California Press. Milton, C. 1972 Women in Policing. Washington: Police Foundation. Morash, M. and J. Greene 1986 “ Evaluating Women on Patrol: A Critique o f Contemporary W isdom .” Evaluation R eview 10:230-255. Powell, G .N . 1988 Women and Men in M anagement. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. Sherman, L.J. 1975 “ Evaluation o f Policewomen on Patrol in a Suburban Police Department.” Journal o f Police Science and Administration 3:434-438. Sichel, J.L ., L.N . Friedman, J.C. Quint, and M .E. Smith 1978 Women on P atrol: A P ilot Study o f P olice Performance in New York C ity . Washington, DC: National Institute o f Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice. Sulton, C. and R. Townsey 1981 A P rogress Report on Women in Policing. Washington: Police Foundation. Walker, S. 1985 “ Racial Minority and Female Employment in Policing: The Implications o f ‘Glacial’ Change.” Crime and Delinquency 31:555-572.

4

[ ] Concession and Containment: The Establishment of W omen in the Queensland Police, 1 93 1-1 96 5*

Tim Premier+ From the consolidation o f the Queensland Police in 1864 until 1931 there were no women in the force, despite the appointment o f policewomen in a ll other Australian states during W orld W ar One. The election o f a woman M P gave leverage to the action taken b y women’s groups, and two policewomen were eventually appointed in the face o f union opposition and a resistant police administration . Social upheaval in Brisbane during W orld W ar Two allow ed for an increase in numbers and formal organisation into a Police Women Section. Full powers were achieved in 1965, although women rem ained in an extrem ely restricted role. In terms of the aspirations o f the women police movement, the establishm ent of women in the Q ueensland Police was a pyrrhic victory. Their lim ited numbers and separate establishm ent confirmed their m arginal and inferior status. This study highlights the contradictory effects of the em ploym ent o f women police, including the problem atic nature o f the use of women to police their own gender. A t the policy level, the study demonstrates the need fo r strong anti-discrimination legislation to curb the destructive effects o f discretionary decision making in employment, particularly in m ale dom inated fields such as policing. It also confirms dominant themes identified in the developm ent of women police in other countries. Dogged resistance forced women to resort to a variety of adaptive strategies, and m ade for a slow and complex process of infiltration o f police ranks.

Introduction There is a growing body of research on women in policing which illustrates many of the obstacles to women’s access to equality within the criminal justice system as an occupation. The historical background to this continuing conflict assists in understanding why organisations devoted to law enforcement have resisted the new imperatives of equal employment opportunity legislation (eg Heidensohn 1992; Prenzler 1995). Resistance to gender integration appears to have been particularly pronounced in policing. One study has alleged that: The incursion of women into traditionally 'male’ occupations has been opposed, resisted, and undermined wherever it has occurred. In few other occupations, however, has their entry been more vigorously fought — on legal, organisational, informal, and interpersonal levels — than in policing (Martin 1980:79).

R om a historical perspective, a century of gradual and halting inclusion of women in policing is rich in personal narratives o f struggle and failure, and is * Received: 1 October 1996; accepted in revised form: 8 October 1997 t PhD, Senior Lecturer, School of Justice Administration, Griffith University, Brisbane 4111. Email: [email protected]

84

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(1 9 9 8 ) 31 T h e Australian and N ew Zealand Journal of Criminology

revealing o f varied personal and institutional strategies of inclusion and resistance. Most histories of policing have reflected the marginalised status of policewomen and failed to recognise the hidden war to keep police work safe for men (Carrier 1988). There has also been a failure to recognise how the intensely gender differentiated nature of modem police services impacted on the way policing has been done (Finnane 1994). The ‘progress* o f women in policing has tended to follow a pattern reflective both o f the similarity of police agencies in Western countries and of the influence of broader movements — such as international feminism and the human rights movement (Heidensohn 1996). ‘Local* and ‘regional* conditions have, however, affected the pace and nature of change, and can be usefully researched to understand how specific conditions and shifting power relations have assisted or retarded progressive change. Regional studies, such as this one, which ‘not only accommodate but mark out and privilege women’s experiences [have] die potential . . . to add new analytical dimensions to female specificity in history* (Reekie 1994:10). The major primary source for this study was a file titled ‘Commissioner’s Correspondence* held in the Queensland State Archives and Central Registry, Queensland Police Service Headquarters.1 The file contains official memos, letters, submissions, reports and newspaper clippings on the employment of women police. This material was supplemented with transcripts of parliamentary debates, the Police Union journal and conference minutes, and by interviews with 21 informants. The large majority of informants were former policewomen, with a few former policemen. The latter were selected because they had worked with policewomen or had some involvement in policy-related areas such as in the Union. Some informants simply provided a small amount of information over the telephone. Others provided lengthy taped interviews covering issues such as reasons for applying to join, nature of duties, experiences of discrimination, public responses, relations between policewomen, and job satisfaction. Several informants joined the Queensland Police in the early-1940s in the second decade of women police. Unfortunately, the first two female officers in Queensland and the first Supervisor of the Police Women Section were deceased when the study was begun. Part One of this paper reports on the data in a narrative format focusing on transitional processes in the establishment of policewomen. Part Two analyses the data in terms of a number o f key conceptual frameworks. These are (1) patriarchal resistance to sharing the benefits of a career in policing, especially through the mythology of women’s inferior physical ability within the context of the mythology of the physicality of policing; (2) opposing models of policing centred around a masculinised concept of ‘law enforcement* and a feminised concept of ‘preventive justice*; (3) ambivalence in the role of policewomen in both protecting women and engaging in forms of repressive control of women; (4) ambivalence and insecurity in the effect of Commissioners* discretion over women’s employment — at times favouring and at times resisting the inclusion of women — in the context of the distinctive conservatism o f Queensland in generating a social and political climate acutely antagonistic to gender integration.

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Part one The women police movement The ‘women police movement* developed in most Western countries in the early-twentieth century. Women’s charitable and political groups lobbied for a specialist group within the police to deal more sensitively with women and girls. The movement received added impetus from the dislocations and labour shortage produced by World War One. Fears about the spread of sexually transmitted diseases amongst the armed forces led to concerted efforts to prevent potentially infectious contacts, and policewomen were employed in part to police public and semi-public places that offered opportunities for dangerous liaisons (Owings 1969; Higgs & Bettes 1987). The location of the first woman with full police powers is uncertain, although Stuttgart, in Germany, is attributed with the appointment of the first officially titled ‘police woman* in 1903. The first policewoman proper in the United States is usually said to have been appointed in Los Angeles in 1910. In London in 1914 women formed police volunteer organisations and were attested into the London Metropolitan Police in 1923 (Carrier 1988). War-time conditions in Australia led to the appointment of the first two women police in New South Wales in 1915. Other states followed until by 1917 all states except Queensland had policewomen (Prenzler 1994). Queensland in the early part o f the twentieth century was not a place receptive to an idea so audacious as that o f women police. Labor governments held power for most of the years during which the women police movement was active and in the formative years of policewomen. Queensland had been amongst the pioneering jurisdictions that gave women the vote and the right to stand for parliament early in the twentieth century (Haines 1992). However, beyond these fundamental innovations, the frontier environment merely compounded Victorian stereotypes about the subordinate domestic role of women. Policing in Queensland was consolidated in 1864. The frontier situation is said to have led to the adoption o f a relatively intense paramilitary police organisation along the lines of the Irish Constabulary. As in most jurisdictions, policing was inevitably a highly masculinised institution that valued stereotypically male traits of physical strength and aggressiveness. Queensland’s third Commissioner, William Cahill, appointed in 1905, had served in the Irish Constabulary and ‘applied a thorough, militaristic approach towards police work’ (Johnston 1992:107). The force had all the trappings of the military, and discipline was strictly hierarchical with no process for appeals (Johnston 1992; Fleming 1997). Lobbying for the appointment of policewomen in Queensland has been traced back to 1911. The National Council of Women of Queensland (NCWQ) asserted that the police needed ‘trained social workers . . . given the status o f public officers. . . to deal with girls in difficulty or danger, and to patrol parks and beaches* (Potter n.d.:19). When newspapers took up the issue in 1915, the Acting Home Secretary, John Huxham, wrote to Cahill, requesting his opinion. Cahill’s reply was characteristic of his approach to the job of commissioner. He stated: ‘I am quite unable to indicate how women could be advantageously em ployed. . . In any event, I can assure you that we have old

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women in sufficient numbers in the Police force already'.2 Huxham took the Commissioner's advice and proposed to await the results o f 'experiments in this direction in the southern states'.3 Lobbying escalated in the late-1920s, when the powerful Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane, Duhig, came out in support o f the idea, as did the Country Women's Association, the Australian Federation o f Women Voters, and the Queensland Women's Electoral League.4 Comparisons were made repeatedly with Britain, the United States and the other Australian states. South Australia was held up as a model, where Kate Cocks, the founder and head of the women police, had swung doubting commissioners and a sceptical public around to strong support for her unit. Advocates employed a variety of arguments in favour of women police. The Brisbane Daily Mail claimed that males lacked the sensitivity to deal with crime problems faced by women and girls.6 The advantage to the police in preventing suspicions of improper dealings with girls under interrogation was emphasised, alongside the right of women to be dealt with by women. The conventional idea of the innate nurturing qualities of women was evoked as a vital element in potential reform.7 Successive commissioners and the government remained unmoved. ‘Prejudice dies very hard’, declared the Brisbane Courier in 1929, ‘and it appears to be dying very hard in Queensland in the matter o f women police’.8

The introduction of policewomen The turning point in the campaign for women police was the election of the first female member of parliament in Queensland. Irene Longman won the seat o f Bulimba, in Brisbane, when Labor lost power to the Country Party in the Depression year of 1929. She subsequently lost her seat when Labor was returned to government in 1932. Mrs Longman had a strong interest in child welfare, especially as it related to the criminal justice system. She had been president o f the NCWQ from 1921 to 1925 and held office in several reform societies (Fitzgerald 1984). Soon after the change o f government the NCWQ made an approach to the new Home Secretary, J C Petersen, who directed the Commissioner to investigate developments in other jurisdictions. Commissioner Ryan reported favourably on the work of women in the southern states and reported on a resolution in favour o f the appointment of women — ‘in their proper sphere’ — passed by the 1927 Conference of the Police Commissioners of Australia. Ryan told the Home Secretary that ‘I incline to the belief that such an appointment would meet the wishes of a great number o f people o f this State, who have approached me on the matter’. He suggested that the appointment of two women could be given a trial.9 The weight o f evidence and strength o f support in favour of policewomen obliged Ryan to take a more positive view than he had in the past, but he was not sufficiently interested to initiate action. In August 1930 Mrs Longman made a submission to Cabinet outlining the advantages of employing policewomen. The submission was favourably received and the decision to aopoint women was announced by the Premier, A E Moore, on September 30. The Police Union was stridently opposed to the decision.11 The change came at a time of dissension over reductions in wages and increased duties (Johnston 1992). The Union could see no role for women other than as 'ornaments' and stated bitterly that the appointments would only make the job

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harder than it already was. The only hope for the beleaguered males was that ‘these lady police will do what naturalists say is done by a certain species of South American spider*.12 The Union had little success influencing policy under Labor, but it was able to negotiate an expansion o f powers that was convenient for the Moore government concerned about perceptions of rising crime (Fleming 1997). In the matter of women police, however, the Union appears to have been ignored by Cabinet. Implementation of Cabinet’s decision was facilitated by a visit by the Home Secretary to New South Wales. The Commissioner there spoke highly of the work done by women police and Petersen was impressed by the wide range of their welfare related duties.13 Zara Dare and Eileen O’Donnell were selected from amongst 38 listed applicants and were appointed as ‘Women Police’ on 16 March 1931. Dare, aged 44, had been an organiser in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and served with the Salvation Army in China where her work included rescuing women from forced prostitution.14 O’Donnell worked keeping house for her brother. She heard of moves to introduce policewomen and wrote a letter of application with references from two state parliamentarians. She was 34 when appointed.15 Both women were single — a criterion not stated but consistent with the marriage bar in the public service.

On the job The new policewomen were appointed as probationers, on a trial basis, by ministerial direction. This meant that they were not sworn in, had no police powers of arrest, and did not contribute to the police superannuation fund.16 A male constable started on 15s Id per day. Dare and O’Donnell worked for 9s per day (Johnston 1992:216). This was typical of awards for workers in female industries who received just above 50% of the male basic wage on the assumption their work was inferior and they were single with no dependents (Scutt 1992). There is little extant material on other conditions of employment, although it appears they worked regular hours but with one on call out of hours. There is no evidence that they received any formal training. The women were posted to Roma Street Station in central Brisbane under the supervision o f the Inspector for the Metropolitan Division. One task they had was escorting female prisoners, sometimes on long train journeys. On occasions they were required to search female prisoners, although this was not a regular task as the police maintained a ‘female searcher’ in the city Watch House. Other duties, described by Commissioner Ryan, were typical of the role assigned to policewomen at that time: Interviewing women in connection with sexual offences, acting as Police Agents in obtaining evidence against fortune tellers, etc, shadowing suspected persons, making general inquiries regarding women and children, attending courts and escorting females and children to and from the courts when necessary.17

The women wore plain clothes, partly because they were not sworn in; but also so they could move incognito and in order not to alienate female suspects.18 Ryan noted that the women had been successful in securing evidence to obtain convictions in several cases and he appeared pleased with the ‘experiment’.19 Most of the work was non-confrontational. When she

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retired, O'Donnell could recall only one Teal fight': ‘What started as a routine visit to a house at Momingside for m yself and a uniformed Sergeant in the war years ended with us disarming a man and arresting him and a woman before there was some shooting’.20

Lobbying for expansion and equality Throughout the 1930s the number of policewomen in Queensland remained at two. Commissioner Ryan reported in 1933 there were approximately 1262 male police officers in Queensland. The two women made up about 0.15% of the total number of officers at a time when Queensland had a population of approximately 950,000 and Brisbane 300,000 21 In 1933 the NCWQ wrote letters to the Commissioner noting that it had come to the Council's attention that the women did not have equality with policemen and did not contribute to the pension fund. The Council politely suggested that equality was preferable and that the good work done by the women justified an increase in their number.22 Ryan replied, ‘It is the policy of this Department to rank such members as supernumeraries; they were advised of the conditions when they were taken on, and signified their approval of such conditions. They may resign at any time if they wish, if they are not satisfied'.23 Ryan retired the following year, 1934, and was replaced by Cecil Carroll (1934-49), a more dynamic and progressive commissioner (Johnston 1992). For most of the 1930s his attitude to policewomen was decidedly lukewarm but the exigencies of war provoked him into upgrading their position and numbers. When the NCWQ and WCTUQ lobbied for equal standing for policewomen Carroll argued that the two incumbents were unsuitable for permanent status, on the assumption they were too old (Dare was 51 and O’Donnell 41) (Potter n.d.:19). He subsequently met with a delegation from the NCWQ and promised the group he would give the matter further consideration, but took no action.25

Creation of the police women section Zara Dare married in 1940 and was obliged to resign from the force. Elizabeth Boyle was appointed in her place. Eileen O’Donnell remained at City Station with uniformed police while Boyle was posted to the Brisbane Criminal Intelligence Branch (CIB). A decision was made to introduce more formalised training for her and subsequent appointees. However, most of the women appointed during the war did not receive any training.26 The war footing that Australia was now on created the opportunity for a more structured and expanded role for policewomen. As the male workforce shrunk, and women moved into war industries and related jobs, American troops flooded into the Brisbane area. The large influx of US servicemen contributed to an escalation in elopements and domestic disputes, and the situation generated something of a moral panic and a call for more control of young women (Saunders & Taylor 1987). The type of concerns that led to the expansion of policewomen’s work is evident in a request made to the Commissioner by the Brisbane Women’s Club: The Civic Sub-Committee of the Brisbane Women’s Club wishes to recommend the appointment of additional policewomen to restrain the conduct of young women

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towards the members of the fighting forces on leave in the city. It is felt that the present number of women police is insufficient to cope with the situation, and that many young men are enticed into undesirable company because of lack of supervision in the vicinity of hotels.27

In this case, the main concern appears to be for ‘protecting* the troops. In other cases, protective concerns regarding sexual assault and unwanted pregnancies were focused more on women.2®Policewomen were deployed in surveillance work in places such as the notorious ‘Love Pit* in the National Hotel in central Brisbane, which had a floor show on the ground floor and a brothel upstairs. The floor show area attracted many under-age girls. The ‘Passion Pit’ at the Grand Central Hotel was another hot spot to be surveyed for missing girls.29 Policewomen were expected to keep a low profile and they had little direct contact with servicemen. If force were required, then male police would be called in. The women also had very little to do with organised prostitution, which was handled by detectives in the Consorting Squad, probably in association with graft (Johnston 1992). The women’s work was also extended to include assistance in the control of sexually transmitted diseases. The Consorting Squad picked up suspected female carriers and took them to clinics for examination. Examinations were also conducted in the ‘Lock Hospital* — the Female Venereal Disease Isolation Hospital attached to the prison in Dutton Park — where infected women were incarcerated (Saunders & Taylor 1987). Policewomen were required to be present during these examinations to prevent sexual abuse and also to reduce the subjects’ resistance. The process was ‘as automatic as ring a doctor and ring a policewoman*.30 Some states responded to the increased demands on women officers during the war by creating separate female police auxiliaries (Prenzler 1994). Policewomen in these jurisdictions had full police powers and it was felt that equal powers were unnecessary for the tasks assigned to auxiliaries for the war’s duration (such as clerical and switchboard duties, and driving vehicles). Ryan had described Queensland policewomen informally as an ‘auxiliary unit’.31 Rather than create an official auxiliary, sometime in late 1940 or early 1941 a decision was made to create a sub-unit within the CIB. The Commissioner and Minister agreed that more policewomen were needed and the Minister announced that a staff of four women was planned, with further additions in the future.32 Miss Boyle was appointed as ‘Supervisor, Women Police* by the Commissioner in June 1941.33 She was direcdy responsible to the Inspector in charge of the CIB. Carroll personally selected most of the other women appointed during the war.34 The ‘Police Women Section’ began as Boyle, Alison Johnstone — appointed in 1941 — and one advertised vacancy. The Section was attached to the CIB which was housed in a badly leaking former church, several blocks away from the Roma Street Station.35 The women were ‘on call’ as assistants to detectives, and their plain clothes status also suited them for attachment to the CIB. The typing load of detectives appears to have been an added factor. Use of civilians for clerical duties was restricted because of concerns about confidentiality (Johnston 1992). A letter from the Commissioner to the Minister in 1940 makes it clear that the women’s role was envisaged as a dual role of operational police officer and stenographer to

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male detectives. From that time, advertisements always emphasised a thorough knowledge of shorthand and typing. In 1956, in an equal pay case, it was noted that Queensland was the only state where these skills were required by women police.36

Stasis Eight additional women were appointed during the war. With resignations, the total staff o f the Section numbered nine in 1945 and remained around that level for the next 20 years.37 The end of the war did not occasion any apparent reduction in the perception of the need for policewomen but there were also very few calls for increases. Carroll clearly had an extremely narrow and traditional view of the role of women. Nonetheless, the policewomen saw him as a supporter and their employment remained as secure as it could. Subsequent Commissioners were seen as largely indifferent towards the Section, but indifference also meant that a degree o f security was assured.38 During the war, Carroll had been able to have the approved strength of the Police Women Section increased to twelve, but the quota was never filled. Boyle wrote numerous memos outlining the problem to the head of the CIB, who passed them on with supporting comments to the Commissioner. Advertisements for the vacancies were usually approved, and the understaffing was attributed to lack of suitable applicants. The labour shortage produced by war and post war development was an obvious factor.39 The pool o f likely candidates was also greatly reduced by the narrow age band of 25 to 35 years, as well as a height limit, marriage bar, and bar on divorcees and single mothers.40 Changes to these restrictions were never apparently considered. The attrition of policewomen when they married also kept numbers down. ‘There was no question of staying on after marriage’, recalled one woman forced to resign in order to marry.41 The work itself was highly varied but far from the full range o f police duties. There were occasional postings to different sections such as Modus Operandi, or with the Licensing Branch checking unlicensed premises and sly grog dealers 42 The primary role of assistant to detectives is illustrated in the list o f convictions in the Police Gazette, where the women involved were listed after the detective (Table 1). Most of the time the women did not mind shorthand and typing, although one former officer recalled that ‘it was nothing to be chained to the typewriter for a month’.43 In the mid-1950s it was estimated that the women spent 40% of their time typing for detectives or commissioned officers.44 The public response was usually respectful and co-operative. If anything, ‘pepple were intrigued. There was a lot of mystique*.45 Policewomen were of course a very rare phenomenon in Brisbane: ‘People never knew what to say to us and they used to say, “Are you a policeman woman?”*46

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Table 1: Apprehensions Queensland Police Gazette, 195647 Date

Page

Detectives and Policewomen concerned

Particulars

7.1.56

9

P.C. Const. Montgomery & P.W. Woods

Marjorie Kathleen BATTERHAM, charged with stealing (2 chgs) from Woolworths Ltd and Penneys.

14.1.56

21

P.C. Const. Browne & P.W. Ryan

Margaret Evelyn CUMMINS, charged with stealing (2 chgs) from Woolworths Ltd and Coles Ltd.

10.3.56

134

D e l Donovan, Det. Sgt. Falcongreen & P.W. Wamick

Olda ADAMEC and Brian Maxwell RAUB (on summons) selling wine without a license.

Some policewomen, at least in the 1940s, saw their salary as much better than they could obtain in other occupations, including the public service.48 Given the Police Union’s initial hostility to women, the first appointees did not become members and therefore had no Union support in areas such as equal pay. Eventually the women joined the Union in 1955 following a unanimous decision, without discussion, made at the state-wide conference.49 The first step in the process is unclear, although it is possible O’Donnell made an approach to the executive, who felt ‘the time was right to admit women’.50 Following this achievement, a conversation between O’Donnell and the Union General Secretary led to the executive deciding to pursue an industrial award for the women.51 A case was heard in the Queensland Industrial Court in 1956. Commissioner Glynn opposed the Union’s submission and sat through the entire proceedings. The Public Service Commissioner’s advocate, on behalf of the Police Department, argued that the women could not be considered equal to policemen. The women had not undergone proper training and were not sworn members. They undertook substantial amounts of typing and had duties more ‘akin to those of a welfare worker’. The Union’s claim was deemed ‘extravagant and unreal*.52 Justice O’Malley noted that the women performed ‘a thankless and at times disagreeable but essential task in the community’, but rejected the Union’s arguments about equal work.53 The President o f the Court supported the judgment on the grounds that the women did not take the oath of office.54 In recognition of the women’s work, O’Malley ordered a ‘substantial increase* in wages which amounted to 80% o f constables* or probationary constables* wages depending on length of service. The Supervisor was granted 90% of the wage o f a senior constable with 15 years service.55 The differences were typical o f the period for women in ‘male only’ occupations where there was no female minimum wage (Scutt 1992).

The movement towards equal powers Policewomen who worked in the 1940s appear not to have been frustrated with the lack o f full police powers56 Swearing in was barely an issue: ‘In those days we probably would have thought it was communism*, recalled one

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woman.57 However, by 1960 all the other Australian states had given policewomen equal powers and equal pay,58 ahead of the achievement of equal pay at a federal level in 1972.59 Policewomen in other states also enjoyed pension rights, a rank structure, and more substantial staff allocations from the time they were first appointed or soon after.60 In the 1950s, the rapid growth in automobile use resulted in an expanded role for police in traffic control. In New South Wales, policewomen were given a major role controlling school crossings. The idea caught the attention of the new Queensland Police Minister, Morris. One o f his first actions, in 1957, was to announce the creation of a 20 strong unit of uniformed women to work at school crossings, give road safety lectures to school children and attend to child welfare.61 The question o f a new unit included the issue of swearing in and the Deputy Commissioner advised the Commissioner on the feasibility of the move. Some possible complications were envisaged regarding different retirement ages and physical requirements. The marriage bar would also have to be written explicitly into the Police Acts and Rules. ‘For obvious reasons they should not be married’, observed the Deputy Commissioner. For further presumably obvious but unspecified reasons it was also suggested that women would have to be excluded from the superannuation scheme. Commissioner Harold retired before any action was taken and the new Commissioner, Bischof, announced that he would soon make recommendations to Minister Morris regarding the employment of more women. No mention was made of swearing in but an expanded role was muted, especially with traffic duties, which reflected Morris’s intentions. ‘The women would release men “for more masculine duties’” 62 As a detective Frank Bischof had worked closely with most o f the women and this experience appears to have disposed him favourably towards thenwork.63 One woman who worked in the 1950s suggested that Bischof saw policewomen as ‘a necessary evil’64 but, from the perspective of another, ‘Frank Bischof was for policewomen’.65 The two views are a fairly accurate reflection of the equivocatory attitude expressed by Bischof in different forums and o f his procrastination on issues to do with the Section. In 1959 Morris wrote to Bischof chiding him for not replying to four requests for responses to his proposals.66 The granting of equal powers was supported by the WCTUQ, the Union and the Inspector in charge of the CIB. The Union and the CIB Head were primarily concerned about possible false arrest charges against policewomen following the failed equal pay case and attention to the fact the women were not sworn in. In correspondence with the Minister, Bischof continued to procrastinate. When he eventually made a formal submission, budgetary constraints and the indifference of the new Minister, Pizzey, led to further delays.67 As with the initial appointment of policewomen, final action towards swearing in depended on a member of the government; although in this case it involved support and some initiative from the Commissioner. Alex Dewar took over from Pizzey in 1964 and won approval from Cabinet for the Police Acts Amendment Bill, which included equal powers and pension rights for women. Dewar maintained the age limit of 23 in order to recruit women fairly well confirmed as spinsters. If the age were lowered, he argued, ‘We could go

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through the process of training them and swearing them in, and then lose them’.68

Sworn in The eight serving policewomen were inducted on 31 March 1965 in a special ceremony before the Commissioner and the Minister. The Supervisor became a Sergeant and the other women were given the rank of Constable. Four new appointees began the full probationary training course a week later. One resigned before completing the course, apparently after a visit to the morgue. The three remaining women were inducted in uniform alongside 45 males.69 From this point numbers increased to 27 by 1970. Opinions differ as to the effect of swearing in. Some informants felt that it did not have a great impact on their work. They began to make arrests and appreciated having the capacity to do this. However, the power was used for minor crimes and the traditional strategies of ‘cautioning, advising and assisting’ were maintained.70 Others felt that swearing in gave them more independence from detectives.71 The uniformed women were more likely to deal with street offences but they were usually in the company of males. The same applied to the growing number of women in the new Juvenile Aid Bureau. The changes to the Police Acts brought policewomen in Queensland fairly much into line with their counterparts in other states. The outstanding difference remaining for the Queenslanders was lack of equal pay, which Dewar referred to the Industrial Commission. Victoria had introduced women on mobile patrol during World War Two, but this was exceptional. By the mid-1960s, throughout Australia and the rest of the world, when policewomen achieved equal powers and equal pay they remained segregated and usually made up between one and two percent of sworn personnel. With the exception of a short period of expansion of policewomen numbers in the early 1970s, during the tenure of the reformist Commissioner Whitrod, women remained in a limited role and in small numbers until the early 1990s (Prenzler & Wimshurst 1997).

Part two Policewomen’s role and the ideology of biological destiny A variety of conceptual models of policing and gender relations allows for explication of the formation of policewomen in Queensland. At one level, as an occupation, policing appears as just one more front in the battle between the sexes in which patriarchy dominated. It is clear that men monopolised occupational privileges within policing by using law and symbolic authority to exclude or circumscribe women. This was part of a wider process which confined women to low paid service occupations or to home duties in the nuclear family supporting a dominant male. The closure of opportunities by law and regulations was buttressed by ideological opposition which located women’s natural role in the home. Where a space was grudgingly made for a very small number of female police, it was made only for unmarried women and was merely as an extension of the conventional roles of nurturer and assistant. Regulations enforced women’s first duty to husband and children

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(Scutt 1993). The higher age requirement for women police was designed to ensure applicants were confirmed spinsters and would remain Carried to the job*. The appointment o f women police was therefore ‘anti-feminist* in the sense that their functions were ‘designed to protect traditional family life and to reinforce the view that women needed special treatment and supervision just as if they were children* (Carrier 1988:253). This interpretation is consistent with feminist assessments of changes in women’s labour force participation in the first three-quarters of die century. Advances made as a result of labour shortages during war were curtailed in peacetime, and economic depression and a second world war weakened the capacity of the women’s movement to affect genuine change. The major gains, according to Bryson (1994:192-3): have been made where these are consonant with the demands of the economic system or where they serve state purposes. There has been far less evidence of change in evaluations of the worth of women’s traditional activities; there is little change where male power is directly challenged; and there has been little change where women have been seeking cultural change, for instance . . . in the achievement of more co-operative, less hierarchical forms of group interaction and management.

The women police movement itself was ambivalent about the extent to which women should perform the full range of police duties in equal numbers to men (Appier 1992; Heidensohn 1992). Many of the advocates, such as Irene Longman, were conservatives who argued simultaneously for, on the one hand, large numbers, equal powers and equal pay, and, on the other hand, for a limited role. Longman assured the Queensland parliament there would be no ‘Amazons’ employed to police the male population.72 The Labor Opposition in parliament failed to challenge the minimalist model. It supported the introduction o f policewomen ‘to a certain extent . . . provided the work is confined to women and girls*.73 The Daily Mail also reinforced the concept of a limited role, arguing that, ‘There is nothing in the female Robert to conflict with rigid adherence to the conventional police system. Her work would be supplementary to rather than coincide with, the duties of the male force. The woman policeman would essentially guard the interests of women and children*.74 In the case of policing, patriarchal ideology was strengthened by recourse to the issue of force in arrest and order maintenance. Women were deemed incapable of doing this aspect of the job. The arguments are, of course, not peculiar to police work. Claims about women being less qualified physically have applied in many occupations in Australia such as the military, where women are still denied full equality. Nonetheless, the physical ability issue was central to police resistance to women. In 1931 the Brisbane Courier paraphrased an argument made by an Assistant Secretary in Scotland Yard. Alker Tripp’s opinion sums up the traditional view of policing as a physically demanding occupation in which woman could have only an adjunct role: If the moral suasion of the police fails. . . force must be available, and must be used. A constable does not satisfy the requirements regarding his post unless he is ‘fit and able’ to apply that physical force. The constable thus represents the physical power o f the law. Women do not represent the physical power of the species, and the radical disability on the part of the ordinary women to act as constables is, therefore,

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obvious . . . If, on the other hand, women enter the police force as women, and remain distinctive and original, then the accession represents a totally new factor, likely to prove of unprecedented value. If, therefore, the police service can get women, who really are women, and will bring the independent oudook and shrewd counsel which a sensible wife brings to her husband, then, indeed, the service may benefit exceedingly.75

This view about the presumed natural attributes of women — ‘who really are women* — which could be of benefit in policing held also in Commissioner Ryan’s mind. Two years after the appointment of policewomen in Queensland he expressed support for their work, but added that, ‘Their weaknesses and limitations as public peace officers lie in the fact o f the natural physical inferiority of their sex when such matters as dealing with hardened criminals and disturbers of the peace arise. Their work is limited generally to the female population*.76 The obsession with physical ability was also reflected in the comments passed on female applicants in the 1940s, many of whom were automatically dismissed for being ‘too short* or having ‘no presence*. Paradoxically, there were also concerns that policewomen should not be too large.77 Women could not be too much like men. One effect o f the institutionalisation of this view of women’s limited capacity was that the Police Women Section benefited from a chivalry factor. The women’s separate and secondary status, and their small numbers, meant that they were not a direct threat to male hegemony. They could also be given considerable autonomy in their work. In 1941 the Inspector in charge of the CIB suggested that, following a brief period of instruction, the women could be ‘left to act to a great extent upon their own initiative and resourcefulness’.78 Small numbers and segregation also contributed to high levels of camaraderie and conviviality amongst the women. They were aware that many men thought they had no place in police work, but on the whole there were very few direct criticisms and the men who worked with the women were usually ‘gentlemanly*.79

Models of policing The development of women in the Queensland police in the period under review lagged behind many jurisdictions. On the whole, however, it shows a pattern typical of the experience of policewomen in Western countries. For example, researchers have identified a correlation between a strong law enforcement orientation within police services and a more masculinised police culture hostile to women (Jones 1986). Appier sees in the women police movement of the first half o f the twentieth century a ‘preventive-protective’ model of policing fundamentally at odds with a ‘punitive’, or ‘crime control’, model (Appier 1992, also Radford 1989) — a conflict neglected in more conventional histories o f policing (Finnane 1989, 1994). The marginalisation o f policewomen in small units represented a minor concession to the women police movement and a major victory of men against women. It was also a victory of the male dominated control model over the preventive model advocated by the movement. The ‘war on crime* version o f police work allowed men to justify an exclusive domain for themselves based on arguments about physical ability. It also provided an added prestige and source o f cohesion for men. Martin

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(1980) sees the threat posed by women to this heroic identity as the main cause o f the intense opposition of male police to gender integration. The preventive philosophy of the women police movement was inherently subversive of the militarised law enforcement model. Mrs Longman’s submission to Cabinet contains one o f the clearest statements of this challenge. The submission concluded with a plea for full equality for any future female appointees to the police on the basis that ’their special work — the prevention of crime — is as important, if not more so, than that of men’.80

Policing women A major historiographical development which bears on the history of policewomen is the dissemination of the work of Foucault and other post-structuralist historians who emphasise the subtleties and pervasiveness of techniques of control in what are often seen as periods o f social improvement (eg Foucault 1977). The ‘sociology o f control* (Heidensohn 1992:4-9), particularly in its view of the repressive tendencies of welfare services, cautions against an overly optimistic view of the development of policewomen. In this view, the introduction o f policewomen can be seen as part of an intensified control of populations; in particular of women. The most pressing factor influencing the appointment of women police was the need to control female sexuality during the two wan, especially the more public behaviour of young working class women. The cause was taken up by middle class female reformers shocked at sexual licence and the damage it might do to the war effort. ‘Policewomen’s efforts to impose middle-class standards of morality on young working class girls thus involved dynamics of class, gender, and generational conflict’ (Appier 1992:33). Additionally, Australian loyalty to Britain in the global conflicts generated by European imperialism created labour shortages which, ironically, provided career openings for women in formal agencies of social control. In the most cynical version of this scenario, policewomen can be compared to working class male police recruited to police their own class and, similarly, native police co-opted to suppress indigenous populations. Certainly, there is some evidence for this account. Policewomen passed ‘uncontrollables* back to their parents or on to institutions. They assisted men to restrict women’s control o f their fertility by suppressing abortionists; and they assisted in the control of sexually transmitted diseases by forced examinations and detention of working class women (Saunders & Taylor 1987). Although partially valid, on its own this interpretation is inevitably reductive. The role o f policewomen was essentially ambivalent (Radford 1989). Policewomen in Queensland, as elsewhere, were used to limit die freedom of women and girls but also to protect women from male predation. Their presence protected women from abuse by police, doctors, backyard abortionists and procurers for brothels — a task consistent with women’s socially prescribed role as nurturers. Policewomen tended to avoid prosecution and concentrated on preventing crime by their presence, advice, referral and other forms of problem solving or 'moral rescue’. Queensland’s Juvenile Aid Bureau, where policewomen played an important role, ‘was there to help young people instead of just putting them before the courts’.81 Victim

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support and recognising offender victimisation were always central tenets of the policewomen philosophy. Miss Dare, for example, left behind a brief description of some aspects o f her work which shows a decidedly reformist orientation: Every year police women in this city are responsible for bringing in hundreds of children from the streets who have been sent out to ‘lift* goods from the chain stores . . . We try to be kind as well as just. . . If I have helped to lift a few people to their feet, given them any sort of incentive to run straight, it has all been in a very good cause.85

The approach is also illustrated in the following exchange with two former policewomen from the 1940s and *50s. The missing girls, when you found them, would they usually go quietly?

Yes, because we always sided with them. They wouldn’t run?

No, they were glad to be brought to heel I suppose and then if they wanted to go home they usually could. If their parents couldn't control them, they were charged as uncontrollable before the Children’s Court. We had to get off the streets quiedy and everyone avoided confrontation. You never felt you were forcing the girls into something worse?

No. No. We always took them back to the office and encouraged them. They used to come back with their babies when they got married and saw us as friends.

So a lot o f them would come back?

Yes, not to the men so much.

So they felt you had rescued them?

Yes. It was the human touch. They treated us as their friends.83

More data would need to be found to more precisely analyse the dynamics o f the dual functions of protection and control. Nonetheless, whether the perspective is primarily preventive or repressive, given the very small numbers, the impact of women on policing in Queensland, as elsewhere, must be regarded as extremely limited (Finnane 1994:107).

Change makers and the Queensland ‘difference’ The appointment of policewomen and the consolidation of their position depended on the fluctuating interest or hostility of different commissioners and parliamentarians, and on their influence. This in turn fluctuated vis-a-vis conditions such as government priorities and access to Cabinet, Union support or opposition, and shifting social and economic conditions. The intransigence of Commissioner Cahill and the indifference of the Queensland parliament ensured that Queensland remained outside the first wave of development Action by women’s groups only bore fruit as a result of the unusual circumstance of the short-lived election of Queensland’s first female parliamentarian — who happened to be a strong advocate of policewomen. Hers was an especially remarkable achievement given that the Depression years set back the growth of policewomen world wide (Schultz 1993; Prenzler 1994).

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The status of policewomen has varied widely across Australia since 1915. As noted however, Queensland has tended to be behind the other states, especially the southern industrialised states. The conservative political and social environment probably played an important part in reinforcing strident chauvinism in the Queensland police. Queensland’s alleged distinctive conservatism has been related to its traditional rural based economy and rural based electoral system, strong provincialism, ethnic homogeneity and sense of vulnerability to Asia. Amongst other things, Queensland's conservatism was manifested in highly authoritarian governments, underfunded education, disregard for civil liberties and progressive policies such as equal employment opportunities, and blatant politicisation of the police (Johnston 1982). Reekie's (1994) critique o f the ‘Queensland is different' thesis from a feminist perspective argued that the traditional approach to this subject ignored women's experience in favour of generalised political and economic categories. Nonetheless, her review o f the historical research on women's experience in Queensland adds support to the thesis: While women throughout Australia (and the western world) have had to straggle hard to win equal rights with men within the law, Queensland women appear to have faced more obstacles to legal equality than most Their sexual behaviour has been policed more stringently, their legal right to abortion denied, and their right to the protection of law in matters such as rape, sexual harassment and marital property has been less effective, or introduced much later than in other states (Reekie 1994:19).

Amongst the varied evidence cited by Reekie was the retention in Brisbane in World War Two of the ‘Lock Hospital' for the compulsory detention of women with sexually transmitted diseases. The hospital, referred to earlier in relation to the work of policewomen, was unique in Australia. Reekie also cites the particularly uncompromising opposition of the Queensland Labor Party to women's rights, which may account in part for the lack o f innovation regarding policewomen from Labor governments. In accounting for the relative delays in equal standing for policewomen in Queensland, some consideration must also be given the ‘hands o ff policy of the government in many areas. This was crucial in giving scope to commissioners to act independently of government and public opinion in important matters, and appears to be a case in point o f the relative freedom from government policy directives often enjoyed by police commissioners (Finnane 1990). The opportunity provided by World War One was lost because of Cahill's complete hostility to employing women police. In 1931 Ryan reluctantly accepted policewomen imposed upon his department by the government. During World War Two, Carroll won approval for upgrading and expanding policewomen’s position in wartime Brisbane. Commissioner Glynn successfully resisted the Union's equal pay claims in the Industrial Court in the 1950s, although the uncertainty over police powers revealed in the case was an important influence in the granting of equal powers. The vision of Minister Morris for women police at school crossings accelerated moves in this direction. Following some setbacks, and some delays on his own part, Bischof was able to further upgrade and expand the role of policewomen with the encouragement of Minister Dewar; although Dewar stood firm against equal pay. Women's groups made occasional efforts to expand the Police Women

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Section and place the women on an equal footing with policemen. But their limited efforts were repeatedly thwarted, in large part because the very existence o f the Section took the urgency out of the issue. There was also little in the way of collective action by policewomen themselves. This relates significantly to the nature o f police organisations. As a semi-militarised bureaucracy dealing with criminal matters, police have always been secretive and strongly discouraged independent thought and dissent, to the point of prohibiting public comment by police on police matters. Furthermore, the very fact of being a small minority meant that there was little in the way o f strength in numbers. The most logical strategy for dealing with discrimination in cases of extreme minority status is to take a low profile and adapt as much as possible to the alien environment In this ‘assimilation model* policewomen concentrate on appearing competent and avoiding conflict. To some extent this then becomes a self-defeating behaviour by deferring to male hegemony and lowering career expectations (Martin 1990; see also Wexler (1985) on the ‘neutral-impersonal style’ and Jacobs (1987) on the ‘professional officer* style adopted by policewomen). O f course, policewomen at times achieved some justice by group and individual exertions as opportunities allowed. One officer took her case for overtime to the Union and found a sympathetic response which resulted in the payment of overtime to policewomen. A male former officer recalled that in the 1950s and 60s the Police Women Section developed a degree of autonomy by forms of passive resistance towards detectives who were overbearing.85 O’Donnell’s approach to the Union over equal pay met with an enthusiastic response, although it took 15 years before the Union was able to persuade the Industrial Court of policewomen’s right to equal pay (achieved in 1970).

Conclusions Policewomen in Queensland received formal legal protection for equal rights only in 1990 following the Fitzgerald Commission of Inquiry into corruption and mismanagement in the force. The Police Service Administration Act 1990 established appointment by merit 59 years after the appointment o f the first women police. The Act was reinforced by state anti-discrimination legislation introduced in 1992. Removal of recruitment quotas, the marriage bar, different age and height restrictions, and differential deployment was achieved through a long, halting and piecemeal process. The initial appointment of policewomen was a hollow victory. It conveniently functioned as a gambit to quiet the women police movement and resulted in the marginalisation of policewomen for four decades. Some relatively progressive commissioners used their power to advance policewomen’s position; but for administrative purposes, not for principles o f equity. On the whole, police managerial discretion worked against equality for women. Here history serves an important lesson: that external pressure is required to move police and similar organisations forward in gender equality. Adaptive strategies by women in male dominated occupations are likely to contribute to maintenance of the status quo, thereby reinforcing the need for outside pressure. Cultivating the influence of politicians is crucial to affect change, as is recognition of the complex shifting power relations in specific regional and organisational contexts. It is also important to demolish the myths which privilege sex

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differences as criteria for law enforcement or crime prevention. But this in turn creates an inevitable paradox. The case for women police cannot remain based on the concept of a distinctive gender-based contribution to police work. At the same time, with women a substantial proportion o f the police ‘clientele’ — as offenders and victims — the original arguments regarding women’s right to be dealt with by their own gender remain valid in support of complete equality for women in policing.

Acknowledgments I am greatly in debt to the following people for their generous assistance: Mrs Mary Nesbitt (nee Spence), Mrs Eileen Todhunter (Taylor), Mrs Betty Kelleher (Frick), Vic and Dulcie Petersen (nee Bock), Miss Ailsa Wamich, Mrs Jo Hart (Orr), Mrs Gwenn Harris (Jones), Mrs Murial Bath (Beresford), Mrs Claire Buchanan (Conacy), Mrs Olwen Law (Doolan), Diane and Ian Lindsay, Mrs Evonne Lendrum (Weier), Miss Doreen West, Mr Doug Winning, Mr Merv Callaghan, Mr Frank Rynne and Mr Arch Harrison. Thanks are also due to Gabrielle Flynn from the QPS Museum, Jenny Fleming and Joe Sim from the Police Union, and Kerry Wimshurst from Griffith University. The Research and Ethics Committee of the QPS was positive towards the project and gave me all the material I requested. I would also like to thank Inspector Peter Guntrip who assisted with finding documents.

Notes 1. The sub-file ‘Women Police* has the number 1309M. In the State Archives this material is contained in three bundles, A/45448, A/45449 and A/45450, covering the period up to the late-1950s. The remainder is held at Police Headquarters. 2. Letter to John Huxham, 14 September 1915. 3. Telegraph, 14 September 1915. 4. Daily Mail, 19 March 1927; Letter, AFWV to Premier McCormack, 27 September 1927. 5. Telegraph, 8 April 1929. 6. Brisbane Daily Mail, 24 June 1915. 7. Brisbane Courier, 21 November 1928. 8. 9 April 1929. 9. Memo, 24 July 1929. 10. Telegraph, 30 September 1930. 11. Queensland Police Union Journal, 29 October 1930, pp 22-23; Brisbane Courier, 3 November 1930. 12. Ibid, p 18. 13. Brisbane Courier, 19 November 1930. 14. Courier Mail, 2 March 1940. 15. Biographical information, Queensland Police Museum. 16. Letter from Commissioner to New Zealand Police Commissioner, 19 August 1933; Memo, 25 March 1931. 17. Letter from Commissioner to New Zealand Police Commissioner, 19 August 1933. 18. Informants 13 and 14.

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19. Letter to Commissioner New Zealand Police, 19 August 1933. 20. Telegraph, 1 May 1962. 21. Letter from Commissioner to New Zealand Commissioner, 19 August 1933. 22. 21 February and 7 April. 23. 18 April 1933. 24. Courier Mail, 16 September 1937; Carroll, letter to Under Secretary, 5 October 1937. 25. Telegraph, 19 October 1937. 26. Informants 13-19. 27. Letter, 30 June 1942. 28. Letter to Commissioner, 18 November 1942. 29. Informant 13. 30. Informants 13 and 14. 31. Letter to Commissioner New Zealand Police, 19 August 1933. 32. Courier Mail, circa 4 March 1941. 33. ‘Women Police*, Qld Police Union submission to Qld Industrial Court, 1955, p 17. 34. Informants 13 and 14. 35. Informants 8-15. 36. ‘Police Award — State, Judgement*, JP O’Malley, 5 October 1956, p 2. 37. Telegram from Carroll to inquiry from New Zealand, 17 August 1943. 38. Informants 13 and 14. 39. Comments by Risch on memo, Boyle to Risch, 26 September 1950. 40. Sunday Mail, 15 March 1953. 41. Informant 14. 42. Informants 2,13, 14,15; Qld Police Union submission to Qld Industrial Court in response to Commissioner’s objection, circa 14 December 1956, p 13. 43. Informant 13. 44. Memo, Sub-Inspector to Inspector CIB, 13 January 1955. 45. Informant 13. 46. Ibid. 47. In Qld Police Union submission to Qld Industrial Court in response to Commissioner’s objection, circa 14 December 1956, p 10. 48. Informants 13 and 14. 49. Minutes, Queensland Police Union Conference, 7-10 March, 1955, p 30. 50. Informants 20 and 21. 51. Police Journal, 30 September 1955, p 9. 52. Letter, Solicitor-General, 24 September 1956; Tait, response to Application by die Queensland Police Union of Employees for Variation o f the Police Award — State, 1956, pp 5-13; ‘Police Award — State, Judgement*, JP O’Malley, 5 October 1956, p 5. 53. ‘Police Award — State, Judgement’, JP O’Malley, 5 October 1956, p 5. 54. ‘Police Award — State, Provision for Policewomen Judgement’, L Brown, 22 March 1957, pp 1-5. 55. ‘Police Award — State, Judgement*, JP O’Malley, 5 October 1956, p 5. 56. Informants 3, 10-14.

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57. Informant 13. 58. Memo, Sub-Inspector CIB to Commissioner, 12 February 1959. 59. 1972 is often cited, although ‘equal pay for equal work* as a legal stipulation was phased in through a series of decisions by the Commonwealth Arbitration Commission between 1969 and 1974 (see Encel & Campbell 1991). 60. Policewomen in New South Wales were formally granted equal powers in 1965 in that they participated in the same oath and swearing in ceremony as men. They had previously been sworn in as ‘Special Constables' under the Police Offences Act (Letter, Deputy Commissioner to Commissioner, 9 September 1957). The ‘Women Police* sub-file in the ‘Commissioner's Correspondence’ contains information on the status of policewomen in other states because of the practice of writing interstate for information when considering policy changes. One o f the best sources is the second version o f the submission o f the Police Union to the Industrial Court (‘Women Police', circa 1956), which contains a summary of conditions for women in all states and includes a table. 61. Truth, 11 August 1957. 62. Courier Mail, 30 October 1958. 63. Informants 13 and 14. 64. Informant 19. 65. 30 October 1958. 66. Letter, Minister to Commissioner, 25 September 1959. 67. Commissioners' Correspondence, 1958-1964. 68. Queensland Parliamentary Debates, vol 239, 1964, pp 1946-7, 1951, 1971. 69. Report o f the Commissioner o f Police, Brisbane 1965, p 3; Queensland Police Department, ‘Policewomen Swom-in', no date; Telegraphy 30 June 1965; Courier Maily 1 July 1965. 70. Informant 15; ‘Women Police’, Qld Police Union submission to Qld Industrial Court, 1955, p 3. 71. Informants 5 and 7. 72. Queensland Parliamentary DebateSy vol CLVII, 1930, p 2168. 73. Ibid, p 2176. 74. Brisbane Daily Maily 24 June 1915. 75. Brisbane Courier Maily 1 January 1931. 76. Letter to Commissioner New Zealand Police, Wellington, 19 August 1933. 77. ‘Applicants . . . Interviewed', 1941. 78. Memo, Sub-Inspector to Inspector CIB, 3 March 1941; Memo, Sub-Inspector to Inspector CIB, 13 June 1940. 79. Informants 9-17. 80. ‘Women Police’, Home Secretary's Office, 5 August. 81. Informant 18. 82. Courier Maily 2 March 1994.

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83. Informants 13 and 14, see also Courier Mail, 5 December 1956. 84. Public Service Commissioner’s Department, ‘Re: Overtime worked by policewoman A Wamick*, 3 March 1958. 85. Informant 8.

References Appier, J (1992) ‘Preventive justice: the campaign for women police, 1910-1940', Women and Criminal Justice, vol 4, pp 3-36 . Bryson, L (1994) ‘Women, paid work and social policy’ in Grieve, N & Bums, A (eds), Australian Women: Contemporary Feminist Thought, Oxford University Press, Melbourne. Carrier, J (1989) The Campaign for the Employment of Women as Police Officers, Avebury, Aldershot. Encel, S & Campbell, D (1991) Out of the Doll's House: Women in the Public Sphere, Melbourne, Longman Cheshire. Finnane, M (1989) Policing in Australia: Historical Perspectives, New South Wales University Press, Sydney. Finnane, M (1990) ‘Police and politics in Australia: the case for historical revision*, The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, vol 23, pp 218-29. Finnane, M (1994) Police and Government: Histories of Policing in Australia, Oxford University Press, Melbourne. Fitzgerald, R (1984) From 1915 to the Early 1980s: A History of Queensland, University o f Queensland Press, Brisbane. Fleming, J (1997) ‘Power and persuasion: police unionism and law reform in Queensland’, Queensland Review, vol 4, No 2, pp 13-25. Foucault, M (1977) Discipline and Punish, Pantheon, New York. Haines, J (1992) Suffrage to Sufferance, Allen & Unwin, Sydney. Heidensohn, F (1992) Women in Control? The Role of Women in Law Enforcement, Clarendon, Oxford. Heidensohn, F (1996) ‘Women and policing focusing on the mechanical and political environment’ in First Australasian Women Police Conference, 29-31 July, Australian Institute of Criminology, Sydney. Higgs P & Bettess, C (1987) To Walk a Fair Beat: A History of the South Australian Women Police, Past and Present Policewomen’s Association, Adelaide. Jacobs, P (1987) ‘How female police officers cope with a traditionally male position’, Sociology and Social Research, vol 72, pp 4-6. Johnston, W R (1982) The Call of the Land: A History of Queensland to the Present Day, Jacaranda, Brisbane. Johnston, W R (1992) The Long Blue Line: A History of the Queensland Police, Boolarong, Brisbane. Jones, S (1986) Policewomen and Equality, Macmillan, Houndmills Hampshire.

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Martin, S (1980) Breaking and Entering: Policewomen on Patrol, University of California Press, Berkeley. Martin, S (1990) On the Move: The Status of Women in Policing, Police Foundation, Washington DC. Owings C (1969) Women Police: A Study of the Development and Status of the Women Police Movement, Patterson Smith, Montclair NJ. Potter, D (n.d.) The First Fifty Years in the History of the National Council of Women of Queensland, NCWQ, Brisbane. Prenzler, T (1994) ‘Women in Australian policing: an historical overview*, Journal of Australian Studies, No 42, pp 78-88. Prenzler, T (1995) ‘Equal employment opportunity and policewomen in Australia*, The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, vol 28, pp 258-77. Prenzler T & Wimshurst, K (1997) ‘Women and politics in the Queensland police, 1970-1987’, Journal of Australian Studies, No 52, pp 88-101. Radford, J (1989) ‘Women and policing: contradictions old and new* in Hanmer, J, Radford, J & Stanko, E (eds), Women, Policing, and Male Violence: International Perspectives, Roudedge, London. Reekie, G (1994) ‘Women, region and the “Queensland difference*” in Reekie, G (ed), On the Edge: Women's Experiences of Queensland, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane. Saunders, K & Taylor, H (1987) ‘The impact of total war upon policing: the Queensland experience* in Finnane, M (ed), Policing in Australia: Historical Perspectives, New South Wales University Press, Sydney. Schultz, D (1993) ‘Policewomen in the 1950s: paving the way for patrol’, Women and Criminal Justice, vol 4, pp 5-30. Scutt, J (1992) ‘Inequality before the law: gender, arbitration and wages* in Saunders, K & Evans, R (eds), Gender Relations in Australia, Harcourt Brace, Sydney. Wexler, J (1985) ‘Role styles of women police officers’, Sex Roles, vol 12, pp 749-55.

5

[ ] D iscrim inatory Experiences o f Women Police. A Comparison o f Officers Serving in E ngland and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic o f Ireland JENNIFER BROWN Department of Psychology, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH} U K

Introduction This paper undertakes the first com parative analysis of women police officers serving within the four jurisdictions of the British Isles (i.e. England and Wales; Scotland; N orthern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland). T he difficulties in conducting the research and solutions to overcome problems are described. Analysis of archival m aterial is presented th at historically contextualises the position of policewomen w ithin the British Isles, and also suggests possible dimensions to describe constants and contrasts of com parative experiences. C ontem porary em pirical data ( N =219) are reported that show differences in the frequencies of discrim inatory treatm ent and exposure to sexual harassm ent, w ith the lowest levels indicated by officers from the Republic of Ireland and the highest from policewomen serving in England and Wales. Some explanatory conceptualisations are discussed to account for these differences.

Background Com parative analyses in policing have previously focused on a variety of projects such as the incidence of crime, and attem pts to relate these to rates of industrialisation, urbanisation and affluence (M ayhew 1994; Van Dijk & Van Kesteren 1996); com piling statistical profiles of sizes of police forces, num bers of police officers per head of population and exam ining indices of public satisfaction with policing services and attitudes towards punishm ent (Beynon

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et al. 1995); perceptions of the efficacy of the police (M awby 1992); victim ization surveys (M ay hew & W hite 1996); public disorder associated with differences in relative strengths of relationships between the state and police, societal beliefs and values (Brewer, L ockhart & Rodgers 1997). M uch of the early research effort resulted in classifications or taxonom ies of policing. Bayley (1985), for example, describes ‘auth o ritarian 5or m ilitary policing, ‘oriental5 or com m unity focused and specialised ‘A nglo-Saxon5policing styles which are m ean to be universally applicable. Brewer, L ockhart and Rodgers (1997) criticise such approaches as being overly simplistic. T h eir study, com paring reported crim e rates betw een the Irish Republic and N orthern Ireland, challenges traditional methodologies and crim inological models which do not explain the patterns of crim inality occurring in the two parts of Ireland. R einer (1992) presents an analysis of why simple typological approaches are often obscurist. He argues, as do M awby (1990) and Heidensohn (1992), that cross cultural com parisons must take into account national, social and political values. M uch com parative police analysis fails to acknowledge themes identified by R einer (1992:777) as “pluralism , contingency, the underm ining o f absolutes, am bivalence and disintegration55 R einer (1992:779) argues that “deeper social changes of postm odernity are transform ing the role of the police institution w ithin the whole array of policing processes55 R einer (1992:781) identifies three crucial constituents to this transform ation; style of police leadership, gender and racial diversity o f police personnel, the plurality and diversity of the policed. R acial issues in England and Wales have been shown in sharp relief as a result of the M acpherson R eport (1999) enquiring into police procedures and practice following the failed m urder investigation of black teenager Stephen Lawrence. Heidensohn (1996:6) suggests there has been an em ergence of a new policing agenda where police organisations are seeking com m unity consensus and greater domestic priorities, as in violence against women. It is striking that m any com parative studies of policing ignore women (Bayley 1985; M awby 1990; Das 1991). As Brewer, Lockhart and Rodgers (1997) used their study of crim e patterns in Ireland to develop a m ore eclectic approach to conduct com parative analysis, the present study seeks to extend insights into policing through a gendered and historical analysis. Research into the histories, roles and experiences of police women have tended to concentrate on single countries (Wales, Jones 1986; India, Aleem 1989; N atarajan 1994, 1996; U nited States, H unt 1990; Schulz 1995; M artin and Ju rik 1996; England, Young 1991; M artin 1996; Brown 1998a ; Australia, Prenzler 1994; W im shurst 1995). Findings are difficult to com pare because of the varying dates and m ethodologies of the studies. An overview, however, does indicate the universal resistance to women’s entry into policing, widespread occurrence of sexual harassm ent, differential deploym ent and blocked career progression. C ross-cultural research into women police is available for U.S./U.K. comparisons (Heidensohn 1992, M cKenzie 1993), France, England and Wales (Dene 1992), Europe (Brown 1997), Australia, Europe and U.S.A.

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(Brown 1998). M ore recent edited collections on com parative policing include analyses of women police (M awby 1999). Research activity has been inhibited through inadequate tools for conceptual analyses (Heidensohn 1992); absence of relevant source m aterials (M awby 1990); and difficulties in negotiating access to research populations of police officers (for a discussion of this problem see R einer 1991; Jones & Newburn 1994; H orn 1996; Walker 1997). Difficulties of access are further exacerbated if the topic of the research is especially sensitive; if findings are likely to result in adverse publicity (Lees 1997: 178-179); or if the sam ple being accessed has inherently low numbers, as in the case of policewomen (W ertsch 1998:26). T here have now been developments in identifying conceptual tools for cross-cultural analysis of the experiences of policewomen (H eidensohn 1992), which have been found to be robust when extended to other jurisdictions (Brown 1997). A further dim ension to com parative analysis has been added by Schulz (1995), and Brown and Heidensohn (2000) who draw attention to the im portance of grounding the developm ent of policewom en’s roles historically in order to discover constants and contrasts, one task of com parative analysis (Mawby 1990:4). Some advance has been m ade in analysis of social values, such as models of m asculinity and attitudes towards violence, within which to situate policewomen’s experiences bo th in term s of their deployments and treatm ent by their m ale co-workers (Kersten 1996). Researchers are also beginning to locate source m aterials through more extensive exploration of original archival m aterials (Dene 1992; Levine 1994; Schulz 1995; Brown 1997). These involve traw ling through special collections, m em oirs of retired policewomen, and location of official docum ents such as annual reports of Inspectors of Constabulary. Solving the problems of access to research samples o f policewomen to conduct em pirical research has required some ingenuity by researchers. H eidensohn (1992) recruited 50 policewomen, some retired, by m eans of a snowball sam pling strategy in which one respondent gave details of a colleague willing to participate in the study. T his strategy was also employed by L anier (1996) who conducted interviews with 20 U.S. policewomen. G rant, G arrison and M cC ornack (1990) and Poole and Pogrebin (1998) surveyed policewomen attending International Association of Women Police training conferences. In a related crim inal justice study, Pierce (1995) disguised the real purpose of her research in order to conduct a participant observation of sexual harassm ent within A m erican law firms. In the present study different approaches were m ade in the jurisdiction under study and are described fully in a later section.

Historical grounding Policing in the British Isles owes its origins to Sir R obert Peel who established the Royal Irish C onstabulary in 1822 (C am eron 1992) and London’s

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M etropolitan Police in 1829 (C ritchley 1967). By the end of World War I there were women serving in the Royal Irish Constabulary, to deal with wayward girls, but who had no powers of arrest and were not paid from police funds (Policewomen’s Review 1931; Lock 1987). O n the P artition of Ireland in 1922 two new police organisations were formed: the Royal Ulster C onstabulary (RUC) and the G arda Siochana. Two policewom en transferred to the RUC in 1922 although were referred to as m atrons (C am eron 1992). Brewer (1991a) states that women were first recruited into the RUC in 1944 and restricted to Belfast and D erry to deal exclusively with women and children. Edith Smith of G rantham is usually regarded as the first English policewoman appointed in 1916 (Heidensohn 1992). In Scotland wom en were used to search female offenders and H er M ajesty’s Inspector o f C onstabulary recom m ended the appointm ent of wom en police in 1894 (G rant 1973). T his was not to occur until 1915 when Emily M iller becam e Glasgow’s first policewoman. Scottish policewomen were not sworn in until 1924 (M ore N isbett 1930). T his early period was m arked by a num ber of com m on elements. Firstly, the entry of wom en into policing in all forces was contested. An early Scottish pioneer policewomen writes “there is an enorm ous am ount of prejudice to be overcome and a still greater am ount of indifference and apathy” (M ore Nisbett 1930). T h e Policewoman’s Review (1927) reports th at “women police in Dublin are allowed little initiative and th at it is therefore difficult to give a fair estim ate of the work they accom plish”. T he Policewoman’s Review (1931) editorial noted th at the M ovem ent for Policewomen in England was decried as “a farcical m anifestation of feministic agitation and the undoubted work of fanatical feminists”. Secondly, the early duties of policewomen in all British jurisdictions were directed at ‘suitable’ work in dealing with female and child victims and offenders. T here were some contrasts. In general the official tone for the appointm ent of women officers was most hostile in England and Wales. Tancred (1951) notes the operation of the discretionary principle in the appointm ent of women officers in England and Wales which allowed chief constables to exercise what the Archbishop of York described as “Victorian prejudices”. In com parison Tancred (1951) suggested there to be a more positive attitude in Scotland which facilitated the work of women as detectives ahead of their English counterparts. T h e chief constable of Glasgow recorded in his 1940 annual report that the “services of experienced female officers are well nigh indispensable”. Tancred (1951) quoted from Miss M acm illan, the head constable of the women police of the RUC: “women here did not experience some of the difficulties of a young force in th at they had the full support of superior officers and mostly of colleagues”. T he wom an officers arrived when w ar conditions stretched the resources of the civil police and consequently the average RUC policem an was pleased to have women to assist and were accepted by the workforce. T here were no women in the G arda Siochana at this time.

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There were also some differences descernible in the attitudes of the staff associations towards policewomen. T h e Police Federation of England and Wales refused at first to represent women, not doing so until 1947. This had been achieved in Scotland in 1927. By the 1940s views of [His] M ajesty’s Inspectorate of Constabularies were converging: “I am very strongly of the opinion that the em ploym ent of further policewomen in the cities, large burghs, industrial areas and garrison areas should be considered... the m ore one gets to know o f policewomen’s work the more one appreciates their helpfulness, kindness and acts of hum anity” (H M IC for Scotland 1939:6). “Experience... has shown that the emphasis laid on the im portance and value of the work of policewomen was justified and it is now recognised that no force can be regards as complete unless it has an appropriate num ber of policewomen (H M IC for England and Wales 1946:13). T he status quo in term s of num bers and traditional duties of policewomen rem ained so until equality legislation. In England and Wales the 1975 Sex D iscrim ination Act (SDA) incorporated the police and the legislation applied to Scotland and N orthern Ireland in the following year. T he G arda Siochana were exempted from the Em ploym ent Equality Act of 1977 until it was obliged to comply through the enactm ent of an EC Directive. E qual pay for women in the G arda followed successful litigation initiated on behalf of women sergeants, who until then received a third less pay than their m ale

Figure 1. Percentage of women officers within the British isles. ■ , England and wales; O , Scotland;*, Northern Ireland; A , Republic of Ireland.

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counterparts. Numbers of women were to increase in all jurisdictions but possibly had less to do with the im petus of equality legislation but more to do with the failure to recruit m en (Jones 1986) (see figure one). T he apparent dow nturn in the num bers of women in the RUC is probably due to a high rate of resignations by wom en (184) during 1980 to 1985 (M athewson pers. comm.). He indicated that 71 percent of resignations were due to unspecified personal reasons and speculated that these women had entered service as young single women and by the mid 1980s were considering the balance between com m itm ents of full tim e work and the responsibilities associated with m arriage and children. T h e Police Staff Associations in E ngland and Wales disputed the provisions o f the SDA being applied to the police. T hey were still claim ing that policing was an inherently unsuitable jo b for women. W hitaker (1979:120) noted “both the Police Federation and most chief officers — for once shoulder to shoulder — were hostile to [women’s] employm ent. T he Federation confidently pronounced th at the very nature of the duties of a police constable is contrary to all th at is finest and best in wom en”. W hitaker found a further example of this ambivalence from a Hom e Office instruction about conducting searches: “A m an is to search a man. A w om an is to search a woman. A w om an m ay search a m an below the knee and above the waist, but if the sex of the suspect is in doubt, only a w om an is allowed to discover the tru th ”. David Gray, H er M ajesty’s C hief Inspector of C onstabulary for Scotland, expressed these sentiments in his annual report for 1976 (p.16): “T he failure to achieve complete success [in the integration of women officers] is not for w ant of trying on the p a rt of the m anagem ent but is due solely to the physical unsuitability of women to cope with the drunken violent hooligans, particularly in rough areas on night duty. Senior officers state quite openly that they are not prepared to send ‘slips of girls’ to handle potentially violent situations”. T he H M I for England and Wales was m ore sanguine: “ 1975 will see the introduction of new legislation to provide equal opportunities for women...As had been said certain tasks are better perform ed by women others by m en but a great deal of police work can be done efficiently by either sex (H M IC 1976:6). “Achievements of women in the past year have done much to dispel m any of the earlier misgivings about their em ploym ent in every type of duty” (H M IC 1979:4). C am eron (1992:95) claims that the process o f integration w ithin the RUC was accelerated because of the political situation in the Province: “As a result the [RUC] was better geared to m eet the new role [for women] than m any other constabularies in the United K ingdom ”. T here is relatively little research available docum enting the im pact o f equality legislation on the G arda Siochana. M cNiffe’s (1997) history has little to say about women officers other th an noting the dropping of the feminised version for constable ‘bangharda’ in 1991. Inform ally wom an, however, are still known by the term ‘banners’ (O ’Keefe, pers. comm.). Crowe (1997:25) provides some evidence for the initial

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perception of women’s unsuitability for policing by quoting a presently serving wom an inspector as follows: “T he G ardai was seen back then [1977 when the Em ployment Equality Act was passed] as very much a physical jo b and a male preserve” T he rationale offered by policemen to lim it policewomen to ‘suitable5areas of policing was based on a m ixture of paternalism and protectionism . Evidence for such attitudes can be found in the RUC (C am eron 1992). In essence, under Sir K enneth Newman, the RUC operated a m odified role for policewomen in which they perform ed all duties except those of a security nature involving firearms. Brewer (1991b:236) describes m en’s perception of women police as follows: “women have an instinct for tidiness which makes them good adm inistrators; frequently they were described as being suited to dealing with child and female offences because of their more com passionate natures”. T he attitudes of the force to its women officers is neatly encapsulated in the C hief Constable’s statem ent when defending the RUC against a sex discrim ination challenge by a women reservist. “T he C hief Constable considers that if women officers were arm ed, it would increase the risk that they m ight become targets for assassination, that arm ed women officers would be less effective in areas for which women are ‘better suited’, such as welfare work dealing with families and children, and that if wom en were to carry fire-arm s it would be regarded by the public as a m uch greater depature from the ideal of an unarm ed police force” {Johnston v. Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary 1986). Despite the judgem ent being found for the appellant, it was not until 1993 th at the distinction between m en and women RUC officers with respect to fire-arms was finally removed (Police Review 1993). In reviewing the im pact of the SDA on Scottish policing, Bennett and Wilkie (1981) concluded that integration had presented problems in the deploym ent of women officers. O ne sergeant from their study was quoted as follows: “no m atter where she is deployed most m ale officers are doubtful about the female officer’s ability and this leads mostly to a protective net being throw n around the female officer by her m ale counterpart” (Bennett & Wilkie 1981:29) In a later, unpublished, survey, Wilkie (1987) recruited a large sample (3348 men and 244 women officers) from seven out of the eight Scottish forces. A final report to the funding body noted that one of the m ain findings was the limits of legislation and formal policy in changing organizational and individual behaviour. T he study found evidence of inform al discrim ination with over three quarters of both men and women officers thinking th at women police in Scotland were not given equal treatm ent. Women believed they were denied access to certain departm ents and training opportunities by the operation of inform al quotas. Jones (1986) reported that by 1986, 58 percent o f Welsh women officers wanted an integrated role, 29 percent a modified role and 16 percent a trad itional role. C om parable figures for Scottish women officers were 77 percent, 16 percent and 7 percent (Wilkie 1987), and for English women officers 62

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percent, 31 percent and 6 percent (Anderson, Brown & Cam pbell 1993). In 1979 the C om m issioner of the M etropolitan Police invited the Policy Studies Institute (PSI) to undertake a study o f the force. Findings revealed that an unlawful 10 percent quota lim ited the recruitm ent of women officers. Widescale examples of both racist and sexist behaviour were found, leading the researchers to conclude that there was a “cult of m asculinity” operating within the M etropolitan Police (Sm ith & G ray 1985). In the light of the PSPs findings and an Industrial Tribunal case in which a M etropolitan police officer won a sex discrim ination case, the E qual O pportunities Commission (EOC) and the M etropolitan Police undertook a collaborative exercise between Jan u ary 1984 and Ju ly 1988. Findings indicated stereotypical deployment of men and wom en officers at police stations w ith clearly identifiable male and female duties w ith m en allocated to driving, public order and outside duties and women to com m unications, work with children and inside duties (Equal O pportunities Com mission 1989). Like the Scottish study by Wilkie (1987), the EO C found th at attitudes in the M etropolitan Police were not always vindictive but were over-protectiveness. However the E O C concluded that such chivalry “was liable seriously to inhibit women's policing experience and therefore their access to specialist and prom otional posts” (Equal O pportunities Commission 1990: 1). Exam ples of differential deploym ent of women officers post-SDA is also evident in the R U C (H M IC 1995) who expressed concern over the lim ited presence o f female officers in traffic, training and specialist C ID duties, and over-representation in child abuse work. T he response to equality legislation had been to establish special enquiry units (de facto a Women’s Police Branch) until 1980 when this was superseded by Child Abuse and R ape Enquiry Units. B urm an and Lloyd (1993) found th at for Scottish women officers there was little choice given about secondments to child protection work which often resembled the work done in the policewomen’s departm ent existing prior to 1975. W alklate (1996:197), discussing recent development of specialist domestic violence units in England and Wales, concluded they “echo and replicate the role of policewomen in a very sim ilar way to that work done in the old Policewomen’s D epartm ents, prior to integration”. As far as prom otion is concerned, the issue of women chief constables was m ooted as early as 1931 (Policewomen’s Review 1931) but it was not until 1983 th at a w om an becam e an assistant chief constable and 1995 a chief constable in England. T he first w om an sergeant in Scotland was appointed in 1940 and in 1961 Inspector Elizabeth H unter was the first woman to apply for a chief constable’s post. Scotland appointed its first woman, Sandra Hood, to assistan t chief constable in 1998 (Police Review 1998). T he Scotsman (3rd O ctober 1997) reported th at Scottish policewomen’s prom otion had declined from 30 in 1994-95 to 23 the following year and 21 by 1996-97. Women in the G arda and RUC still have to achieve chief officer rank. A survey of G arda policewomen conducted by Flynn (G arda Review 2000) found there to be a belief

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amongst the police women that an inform al restrictive quota was operating with respect to prom otion of women officers. C raig (1999) reported that women in the RUC retained their own disciplinary and com m and structure until 1979. H er research findings “showed that female officers experienced practices that hindered or precluded their progress into specialist departments’5 (C raig 1999:22).

Violence and masculinity McVeigh (1994:125) argues that policing and sexual harassm ent take place within a wider environm ent of patriarchal and sexist structures and practices. Relationships between the status of m asculine values and state of m ale identity have been exam ined in relation to rates o f sexual assault (Kersten 1996). Highest rates of sexual assault victim ization were found in Australia, which Kersten suggests are due to a particularly virulent form of “aggressive m asculinity” (Kersten 1996:39). K ersten’s thesis proposes that in A ustralia m asculinity, with its emphasis on physical prowess and independence, is crum bling and as a result, A ustralian m en com pensate by norm alising violence as a way to preserve their dom ination over weaker women and children. If rates of contact crim e which include sexual assault can be used as an indicator of the state of gender relations then com parative victim ization data show these to be highest in E ngland and Wales (3.6 percent) com pared with 2.7 percent for Scotland and 1.5 percent for N orthern Ireland (M ayhew and W hite 1996). Brewer, L ockhart and Rodgers (1997) show that crim e rates in Ireland are amongst the lowest in Europe. If, as McVeigh (1994:125) proposes, sexual harassment by security forces in N orthern Ireland takes place in the context of wider sexist society, then K ersten’s thesis would propose that the levels of societal masculine aggression indicated by these figures would also be reflected in rates of sexual harassm ent and discrim ination within the police. Rubinstein (1989) cites results of a survey of N orthern Ireland office workers in which 43 percent reported hearing suggestive jokes, 28 percent sexualised com m ents and 14 percent were subjected to unw anted touching Pain (1993) reported results o f the Safety in Edinburgh Survey which was a postal questionnaire sampled from the electoral register (JV=389). T he women respondents were asked w hether they had experienced specific forms of sexual harassment: 38 percent said they had been touched or groped, 65 percent leered at and 77 percent had experienced unw anted sexual comments. A nderson, Brown and Cam bell (1993) reviewed the results of surveys into sexual harrassm ent in various occupations in England and Wales and indicated that 52 percent o f women m anagers, 72 percent of teachers and 96 percent of women in West \brkshire employed in cnon traditional’ occupations experienced some form of sexual harrassm ent.

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In the them atic inspection on Equal O pportunities w ithin Scottish Police Forces, H er M ajesty’s Inspectorate of C onstabulary noted that ‘acceptable b an ter’ was the term used to describe exchanges between officers and, if this overstepped the m ark, “where a female officer did not intervene other male officers would be quick to do so on her beh alf’ (H M IC 1993:17). Moreover, the low incidence of unacceptable behaviours was accounted for by “the strong influence of Scottish religious tradition”. In the early 1990s several studies had revealed high levels of sexual harassm ent occurring within forces in England and Wales (Young 1991; A nderson et a i, 1993; H M IC 1993). These suggested an endemic sexism in which “policem en are overtly and consistently hostile towards women in ‘the jo b ’ “ (Young 1991:193). In an unpublished paper Young (1996) itemises some of the epithets used to describe women officers; split arse, treacle (tart), slapper, bitch, turtle, P.I.K. (pig in knickers). Burm an and Lloyd (1993:38) reported that Scottish women officers engaged in child protection work were referred to as “the fanny squad, the nappy squad, and the women’s and weans group”. A survey conducted w ithin the RUC reported that between 13.5 percent and 16.8 percent of women officers betw een 1991 and 1995 were victims of sexual harassm ent. Stalker (1988:68) had described language used by RUC policemen when referring to HQ, based policewomen reminiscent of that reported by Young (1991): “bitch squad, the hen house or cow shed”. A more recent study by Brewer (1991b:237) concluded th at RUC policewomen felt they were “fair gam e as sex objects”, and th at policewomen “have jokes m ade about their bodies, have to listen to dirty jokes, have passes m ade at them, and are the subject to some sexual harassm ent from low-level officers (having their waists pinched, arm s put round them , com m ents m ade as to their appearance)”. Interestingly, C am eron (1992:112), in a quasi official story of the women in the RUC, neither reports nor apparently recognises the occurrence of such behaviour. Yet the H M IC report into the RUC noted there to be “blatant breaches of force policy too often instigated or defended by chief officers [having] a destructive effect on the confidence and belief in force [equal opportunities] policies”. T here is little evidence available on the existence of a m acho police culture in the G arda Siochana. M cC ullagh (1996:151) concludes that “in the absence o f the relevant research we do not know the extent to which such a sub culture can be found gardai”. O ’M ahony (1996:129) proposes that the G arda Siochana enjoyed a degree of com m unity regard and support not shared by the RUC which instead symbolized political failure and social division. However in the last decade O ’M ahony dem onstrates that there has been a severe crisis of m oral, mission and identity, and concludes (p. 131): “Relations between G arda and its com m unity have been seriously dam aged — perhaps perm anently — by the headlong rush into a m acho attitude to crime fighting, by the infatuation w ith m achinery and technology and by the abandonm ent of, or at least the devaluation of, the old priorities of com m unity service”.

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T he malaise is linked to transform ation of broader social and economic values (p. 248): T he growth o f violent crim e and the recent disclosure o f an unsuspected plague o f child sexual abuse and sexual assault on wom en have forced [Irish] society to address its darker side. But it is obvious that the crisis in this area cannot be neatly tied up as a problem involving a m inority o f deviant and perverted individuals. T h e spiritual and moral health o f the w hole society is im plicated in the crisis. T h e extrem e acts o f violence and sexual abuse relate back to, however distantly, com m unal attitudes, values and patterns o f behaviour. T h e rapid pace o f social and econom ic change in [the Republic of] Ireland, including a remarkable revolution in sexual mores, is part o f the problem and seems to have create an environm ent in which betrayal o f trust and uncaring self-indulgence at the expense o f others is more likely.

Given the shared histories (as presented above) and the potency of the inform al police culture (Young 1991; Heidensohn 1992; Fielding 1994) it is suggested that there is sufficient evidence to suppose that women police officers w ithin the British Isles will experience sex discrim ination and sexual harrassm ent. T h e question for the present study is to measure and account for any differential rates of occurrence.

Method Sample details T hree sampling strategies were initially employed in the present study. (i) T h e research departm ents of the G arda Siochana and RUC were approached and requested to distribute a survey to women officers in order that a com parative d ata base could be established, from which findings were to be presented to the International Association of Women Police (IAWP) European Network o f Policewomen (ENP) conference. O ne hundred questionnaires were distributed by the RUC and 50 by the G ardai. Response rates were 62 (62 percent) and 38 (76 percent), respectively. (ii) T h e British Association of Women Police agreed to send a copy of the questionnaire with conference details. M em bership was draw n from officers serving in forces from both England and Wales and, at that time, num bered 120. Seventy com pleted questionnaires were returned (58 percent response rate). (iii) T h e H M I, Police Federation and Association of C hief Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS) were approached to seek perm ission for a survey to be sent to policewomen. The first two organisations agreed, but the latter declined to support the research. In the absence of ACPOS’s consent the survey could not take place. The author had previously undertaken an equality

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survey at the request of one Scottish police force. T his force has an equivalent proportion of women officers as those serving in Scotland as a whole and the force has a rank profile in line w ith the population of Scottish women police officers. In the absence of other Scottish data becom ing available, these data were used where sim ilar questions were used. Questionnaires were sent to the population of women officers in th at force and 64 percent returned com pleted questionnaires.

Measures Officers were asked to provide dem ographic and occupational details. In addition they were asked to indicate w hether or not they had been exposed to sexual harassm ent or four aspects of sex discrim ination; prom otion; training; overtime, and deploym ent opportunities (after Anderson et a i 1993). These questions in a sim ilar form at were also present in the survey of Scottish officers. In addition, the IA W P/EN P survey asked about the m ethods used by wom en officers to cope w ith w orking in the police environment. Finally all questionnaires sought any fu rth er observations by way of an open ended question.

Procedure T he Scottish survey took place in M ay 1994 whilst the IAW P/EN P survey was conducted in the early m onths of 1996. Questionnaires were required to be com pleted on a voluntary, anonym ous basis. It is accepted that the procedure was not ideal and caution should be exercised in interpreting results. However, in the absence of any other com parative studies of women officers w ithin the British Isles and key issues facing the police service in term s of their perform ance and organisation, the roles and experiences o f women officers offer some exploratory findings of value.

R esults D em ographic and occupational are given in Table 1. T he police women from all four jurisdictions are equally likely to be single or m arried (Chi square=9-0 ns); however, those from England and Wales are likely to be older and have served longer th an elsewhere. Fewer of the Scottish wom en officers and m ore from the G arda Siochana have children (Chi square=114, p < 0-009). T here are a greater proportion of constables from the Scottish and RUC samples th an from England and Wales and the G arda Siochana (Chi square=33-6, p < 0-0001). In term s of duties, officers are equally likely to serve in investigations (Chi square=l*7 ns) or support roles (Chi square=2-9 ns)

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Discriminatory experiences o f women police Table 1. D em ographic and occupational details o f sample Garda Siochana

RUC

England/ Wales

Scotland

M aterial Status Single M arried Other

29% (11) 68% (26) 3% (1)

34% (21) 58% (36) 8% (5)

27% (19) 66% (46) 7% (5)

49% (24) 49% (24) 2% (1)

C hildren None Some

50% (19) 50% (19)

62% (38) 38% (23)

67% (47) 33% (23)

84% (41) 16% (8)

Average age

33 yrs

32 yrs

37 yrs

31 yrs

Average length o f service

12 yrs

10 yrs

16 yrs

12 yrs

Rank Constable Supervisor

50% (18) 50% (18)

82% (51) 18% (11)

47% (33) 53% (37)

89% (44) 11% (5)

D uty* Patrol Investigation Support Adm inistration

37% (14) 18% (7) 42% (16) 8% (3)

60% 10% 14% 14%

33% 14% 19% 14%

57% (28) 16% (8) 6% (3) 8% (4)

(37) (6) (9) (9)

(23) (10) (13) (10)

’“Some officers indicated more than one area o f duty hence totals do not add up to

100% .

but those from Scotland and the RUC are m ore likely to be patrol officers (Chi square=13-2, p < 0-004) whilst officers from the G arda Siochana and England and Wales are m ore likely to have an adm inistrative role (Chi square = 17.6, p < 0.0008).

Discrimination and harassment

Figure 2 illustrates the levels of discrim ination and harrassm ent experienced by women officers. Those from the G arda Siochana are least likely to report harassm ent (63 percent) com pared with elsewhere (Chi square=8-6, jfr