Law enforcement is a field in society where women have made great strides.
Though it has only been in fairly recent history that women have become full-fledged
officers on the streets, there have been cases of women involved in law enforcement for
over one hundred and fifty years.
At first, women hired by police departments were called “matrons.”
Matrons were usually “upper-middle-class white women” whose duties included
visiting the sick, searching female and juvenile suspects, making lunches for
male officers, supervising other females in detention centers, and reforming
“wayward” women (Grant & Terry, 2012, p. 35). The first matron was employed
in 1845 by the New York City Police Department (Flanagan, 2009, p.7). Matrons
were unlike the actual policewomen of today in that they did not actively take
part in law enforcement duties.
In 1893, Mary Owens was appointed as an officer in the Chicago Police
Department (Master, Way, Gerstenfeld, Muscat, Hooper, Dussich, Pincu,
Skrapec, 2013,p. 149). Her husband was killed in the line of duty, and out of
sympathy, she was hired (Flanagan, 2009, p.7). Her main duties were to work with other
women and children; however, she was given arresting powers. This large step for
women in law enforcement marked the beginning of the modern female patrol officer,
though it would take many, many years for women to even come close to being considered
equal to men.
In the early 1900s, the first woman to work as a sworn officer was Lola
Baldwin (Flanagan, 2009, p.7). Her powers included supervising several social
workers who were helping the Portland Oregon Police Department. In 1905,
Baldwin was made director of the Department of Public Safety for the Protection
of Young Girls and Women.
It was not until 1910 when a woman was officially given the title of
“policewoman”(Flanagan, 2009, p7.) Her name was Alice Stebbin Wells, and she joined
the Los Angeles Police Department (Grant & Terry, 2012, p. 35). She actually
petitioned the mayor for the job and was hired as a detective. In 1915,
Wells founded the International Association of Policewomen. This association
was formed to address the issues of police professionalism as well as the work
of women law enforcement officers in the social services (Grant & Terry,
2012, p.41). This association remained active until 1932. The purpose of the
International Association of Policewomen was to promote higher educational
entry standards and higher work standards (Grant & Terry, 2012, p. 41-42).
In 1922, the International Association of Chiefs of Police set forth standards
of police women, and their duties were defined as the “prevention and detection of
crime and enforcement of the law" (Tenny, 1953, p. 239). It was Wells who opened
the doors for all following female law enforcement officers.
The barrier for minorities in law enforcement was also broken nearly 100
years ago. Georgia Robinson was the first black police woman in the United
States (Grant& Terry, 2012, p. 35). She was first hired in 1916 as a matron
in the Los Angeles Police Department, but in 1919 she was promoted to an actual
police woman.
During the twenties, women in law enforcement were given jobs that relied
on “maternal instincts” (Flanagan, 2009, p.7). Women continued to usually be put
in jobs that were “for women,” such as talking to female victims and taking care
of children. Women were either a part of a specialized all women unit, or they
were integrated under the command of a male. By 1926, there were 500
policewomen working in 175 cities in the United States (Grant & Terry,
2012, p.35). During this time period, police women were beginning to be viewed
as "crime fighters instead of social workers" (Tazinski, 2005, p.59).
It was not until the late 1960s, early 1970s that women began to be
assigned to uniformed patrol units (Schulz, 2003, p.330). In 1968, two women
were hired by the Indianapolis Police Department as uniformed officers, and they
rode together and answered calls for service (Schulz, 2003, p.331). This was
due to Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that prohibited discrimination
based on sex, among other characteristics, in public agencies. Federal law
enforcement positions were opened up to women when in 1969, Richard Nixon
issued Executive Order 11478. This declared that federal agencies could not
discriminate based on sex, and the Executive Protection Services and the Secret
Service hired female agents (Schulz, 2003,
p331).
Women also broke the barrier into the world of police chiefs fairly early.
Some could be positively identified in small obscure departments including one
in 1919, three in 1921, one in1926, and one in 1965 (Schulz, 2003, p.334). In 1985,
Penny Harrington was selected as the chief of the Portland, Oregon Police Bureau.
She was the first female to lead a department larger than 900 officers
(Schulz, 2003, p.334). She joined the department 21 years prior as part as the
Women’s Protective Division, the only place where females could work.
Another first for women law enforcement officers came in 1990
when an 18 year veteran of the Houston Police Department named Elizabeth
Watson became the first woman to head a department of a city with more than one
million inhabitants (Schulz, 2003, p. 335). Beverly Harvard was the first
African American woman to lead a major department, in her case, the Atlanta
Police Department from 1994 to 2002. Harvard had served as a police
woman since 1973. Annette Sandburg and Anne L. Beers, in 1995 and 1997
respectively, were the first two women to be named the head of a state agency.
Each was named head of their respective states' highway patrol (Schulz, 2003, p
335).
Women have been a part of law enforcement in the United States for a long
time. The positions in which they started and many of the departments were small.
However, women have steadily been breaking down barriers in law enforcement
to the point of becoming an integral part of their agencies as well as in some
cases department heads. It must be stated that even with these gains,"[women]
still remain disproportionately concentrated in the lowest level positions of sworn
law enforcement agencies" (Tazinski, 2005, p.61).