Women in law enforcement
The integration of women into law enforcement positions can be considered a large social change. Within industrialized nations in the early 1900s, there were few jobs open to women in law enforcement; however, timelines vary for developing nations. Within industrialized nations, a small number of women worked as correctional officers, and their assignments were usually limited to peripheral tasks. Women traditionally worked in juvenile facilities, handled crimes involving female offenders, or performed clerical tasks. In these early days, women were not considered as capable as men in law enforcement. Recently, many options have opened up, creating new possible careers.
Overview by country
Australia
The first female police officers in Australia were appointed in New South Wales in July 1915 with Lilian May Armfield and Maude Marion Rhodes.On 1 December 1915, Kate Cocks was appointed the first of two woman police constables, with Annie Ross, in South Australia, a position that had equal powers to male officers.
In Western Australia, discussions of female police officers were held in October 1915 but remained unfunded. Helen Blanche Dugdale and Laura Ethel Chipper were appointed in August 1917 to commence duties on 1 September 1917 as the first two female officers.
October 1917 saw Madge Connor appointed as a 'police agent' of the Victoria Police, and in 1924 became one of four to be appointed as a police officer. Also in October 1917, Kate Campbell of Launceston was appointed to the Tasmania Police.
Queensland Police Department's first female police officers, Ellen O'Donnell and Zara Dare, were inducted in March 1931 to assist in inquiries involving female suspects and prisoners. They were not granted uniform, police powers of arrest, nor superannuation.
The Federal Capital Territory Police appointed their first of two female officers on 18 April 1947, to be in plain clothes, and had powers as a probation officer. The Northern Territory Police Force was accepting female officers by 1960, as long as they were unmarried, and aged between 25 and 35.
In June 1971, the first female promotion to superintendent was believed to be Miss Ethel Scott of the Western Australia Police. In April 1980, Australia's first female police motorcyclist was believed to be Constable Kate Vanderlaan of the Northern Territory Police Force who rode a Honda 750 cc police special around Darwin. NSW Police graduated a self-identified First Nations female officer in September 1982 given to be the State's first First Nations female officer.
Australia's and Victoria's first female commissioner was Christine Nixon in April 2001, to February 2009. Katarina Carroll became the twentieth and first female commissioner of the Queensland Police Service, in 2019.
Austria
Women have played an important role in enforcement since the early 1990s in Austria. On 1 September 2017, Michaela Kardeis became the first female chief of federal Austrian police, which includes all police units in the country and a staff of 29,000 police officers.Canada
RCMP Training
The RCMP Depot Division is the only location for future RCMP cadets to complete their training held in Regina, Saskatchewan. The 26-week training of constables, conducted at the RCMP Academy, does not differentiate between men and women. The troop consists of 32 men and women who are required to follow their 26-week training together as a cadre. Other municipal and provincial police services have their own similar training programs without gender disparity.Firsts
- Rose Fortune was the first Canadian female to act in the capacity of a police officer. She was also a businesswoman who had been born into slavery and was relocated at age 10 to Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, as part of the Black Loyalist migration. In the early 19th century Rose Fortune began setting curfews at the wharves and the surrounding area, which appointed her as the first Canadian unofficial policewoman, known for her ability to keep unruly youngsters in order. She was on familiar terms with the leading citizens of the town.
- Katherine Ryan was hired February 5, 1900, at the Whitehorse Detachment in the Northwest Territories was kept as a matron to deal with female offenders and also be part of an escort team when female prisoners were moved from one place to another. She was the first woman hired in the RCMP, and was a special constable.
In 1994, Lenna Bradburn became the police chief of the service in Guelph, Ontario, becoming Canada's first female chief of police. Christine Silverberg became Calgary's first female Chief of Police in 1995. In 2006, Beverly Busson became the first female commissioner of the RCMP on an interim basis. In 2016, female officers make up 21% of all police officers in Canada. In 2018, Brenda Lucki becomes the first female RCMP commissioner on a permanent basis.
Germany
In Germany, women were employed in the police force from 1903, when Henriette Arendt was employed as a policewoman.The Netherlands
In 1920, the Dutch police force specifically called for women to be employed in the new police office dealing with children and sex crimes within the Amsterdam police force. Initially, this office employed nurses, but in 1923, Meta Kehrer became the first woman Inspector of the Dutch police force, and in 1943, she also became the first woman to be appointed chief inspector.In 2021, 42 percent of the Dutch police force were women.
New Zealand
Examined by at least 1936, the New Zealand Police did not admit women as police officers until 1941. They were not provided uniform, but had a lapel pin for their coats. By 1992, less than 10 per cent of officers were female.Malaysia
Women are able to serve in the police and military in Malaysia. Malaysia is a Muslim majority country and many female personnel wear some sort of headscarf.Poland
In 1923, under the influence of concern expressed by the League of Nations about the increase in prostitution, crime among minors and crimes related to human trafficking, the Polish State Police began to consider establishing a separate women's section. Such a solution was advocated by, among others, the Polish Committee for Fighting Trafficking in Women and Children. Initially, the Central Bureau for International Fighting of Trafficking in Women and Children in the Republic of Poland, operating within Department II of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, was established, headed by a veteran of the Voluntary Legion of Women, Lieutenant Stanisława Paleolog.Finally, on February 26, 1925, the Commander-in-Chief of the State Police signed a decree allowing women to work in the State Police. After training, the first 30 policewomen were admitted and by 1930 their number had increased to 50. Candidates could only be maids or childless widows between 25 and 45 years old, in good health, at least tall and with short hair. Moreover, they had to provide a certificate of morality, an opinion about themselves issued by one of the women's organizations, and an assurance that they would not get married for 10 years after being accepted to the service.
Most of the policewomen from the first recruitment were sent to the Warsaw Sanitary and Social Brigade. The practice soon showed that policewomen were often more effective than their male colleagues in street scuffles, working with minors, or in interventions concerning domestic violence and sexual crimes. Policewomen also cooperated well with social organizations that dealt with human trafficking and pimping, such as the so-called station missions, women's protection societies or Catholic women's orders.
In August 1935, an independent Referat for Officers and Private Women was created at Department IV of the National Police Headquarters, headed by Assistant Commissioner Stanisława Paleolog. At that time a special 9-month course for female privates was created, the graduates of which were sent as constables to prevention or investigation units. Women's Police units operated in Warsaw, Vilnius, Kraków, Lviv and Łódź. Apart from separate women's units, policewomen were also assigned to criminal brigades or juvenile detention rooms in Poznań, Gdynia, Kalisz, Lublin and Stanisławów. By the end of 1936, another 112 women were taken into service, and in the following years a few dozen more were recruited each year. In total, until the outbreak of World War II, courses at the Warsaw School for State Police Officers were completed by about 300 policewomen.
During the September campaign, most of the female police shared the fate of their colleagues from local police stations. Stanisława Paleologna herself, promoted to the rank of commissioner in 1939, separated from the evacuation transport of the National Police Headquarters and, together with part of the policewomen's training company, took part in the battles of General Franciszek Kleeberg's Independent Operational Group "Polesie". During the occupation, as part of the State Security Corps, Paleolog trained future female cadres for the post-war Polish police. After the war she remained in exile in Great Britain, where she cooperated with Scotland Yard, and in 1952, she published the first monograph of the Polish women's police entitled "The women police of Poland ".
According to data from February 2012, women made up 13456 out of 97834 police officers, and 17495 women work in the police as civilian staff.
Sweden
In 1908, the first three women, Agda Hallin, Maria Andersson and Erica Ström, were employed in the Swedish Police Authority in Stockholm upon the request of the Swedish National Council of Women, who referred to the example of Germany. Their trial period was deemed successful and from 1910 onward, policewomen were employed in other Swedish cities. However, they did not have the same rights as their male colleagues: their title were Polissyster, and their tasks concerned women and children, such as taking care of children brought under custody, performing body searches on women, and other similar tasks which were considered unsuitable for male police officers.The introduction of Competence Law in 1923, which formally guaranteed women all positions in society, was not applicable in the police force because of the two exceptions included in the law which excluded women from the office of priest in the state church - as well as from the military, which was interpreted to include all public professions in which women could use the monopoly on violence.
In 1930, the Polissyster were given extended rights and were allowed to be present at houses searches in women's homes, conduct interrogations of females related to sexual crimes, and do patrol reconnaissance. In 1944, the first formal police course for women opened; in 1954, the title "police sister" was dropped and police officers could be both men and women. From 1957, women received equal police education to that of their male colleagues. In 2019, 33 per cent of Sweden's police officers were women.