Ever since the founding of
police departments in the United States in the mid-19th
century, policing has been viewed by most people as a
traditionally male occupation. Men still are the
overwhelming majority of police officers, and this will
continue to be so in the immediate future. Women in policing
now make up approximately 13-14 percent of all employees,
and the women who pioneered this entry into a male-dominated
profession faced many obstacles, but also experienced many
rewards. Women have brought about changes in policing.
The First Policewoman:
1908 or 1910?
There is some disagreement about who was the first woman to
enter a law enforcement agency as a policewoman. By the
latter part of the 19th century, numerous jurisdictions
employed jail and prison matrons. These women were hired to
handle women and children held in correctional facilities
and institutions for the insane. By the 1840s, police
matrons were a common feature in most big city police
departments. While not considered police officers, the
appointments were significant because they constitute the
first official recognition of the idea that women were
necessary for the proper handling of female and juvenile
offenders when they were held in custody. Matrons were the
forerunners of policewomen. Even though they did not have
police powers of arrest, police matrons helped pave the way
for female police officers.
In 1893 an appointment to
provide for the widow of a police officer was made by the
mayor of Chicago. The police payroll carried Mrs. Marie
Owens as a "patrolman" for 30 years until her
retirement on pension. She visited courts and assisted
detectives in cases involving women and children. Such an
appointment was common practice around the country when most
police departments offered neither pensions nor death
benefits. Regardless of their specific titles, women
appointed to such positions often acted as police matrons.
On April 1, 1908, Lola
Baldwin, 48, was sworn in as a "female detective to
perform police service" for the city of Portland,
Oregon.1 She appears to be the
first woman hired by a U.S. municipality to carry out
regular law enforcement duties. A few years earlier, in
summer of 1905, Baldwin was hired by the Portland Travelers'
Aid Society to organize an effort to keep juveniles and
young women safe from "moral pitfalls" as they
visited or worked at the Lewis and Clark Exposition (similar
to a world's fair). Civic leaders felt that the large number
of single lumbermen, miners, and laborers attracted by the
exposition could create undesirable influences among
Portland's women. To counteract this possibility, Baldwin
was put in charge of a force of social workers and given
temporary quasi-police powers for the duration of the
exposition (June 1 to mid-October, 1905).2
Her work to prevent vice was so effective that Lola Baldwin
won the support of the mayor, city council, and police chief
to make her position with the police department a permanent
one. In early 1908 she passed a specialized "female
detective" civil service exam and then on April 1,
1908, was hired by the police department to serve as the
"Superintendent of the Women's Auxiliary to the Police
Department for the Protection of Girls."3
She then began her 14-year career as the nation's first
municipally paid policewoman with police powers of arrest.
It should be noted that
Lola Baldwin, as well as her various municipal supporters,
did not view her role as one that was the same as that of
uniformed male police officers of the time. Her duties, like
those of other early policewomen, emphasized crime
prevention and social work rather than law enforcement.
Baldwin never wore a uniform or carried a firearm, rarely
flashed her badge, and seldom, if ever, made arrests. Her
unit's office was not in the police station but in a local
YWCA. In a 1912 magazine article on Baldwin, the author
described Portland's first policewoman as a "municipal
mother" who could act as a surrogate parent to protect
women and girls from the moral dangers and temptations of
urban life.4
The creation of a
gender-specific social-work role for women in policing
brought Baldwin into a police department. Two years later,
in September 1910, it brought Alice Stebbins Wells to the
Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). By a decree of the Los
Angeles City Council, the LAPD appointed Mrs. Alice Wells, a
37-year-old assistant pastor and social worker with two
college degrees, to the Juvenile Bureau. The council had
unanimously passed an ordinance providing for the employment
of "one police officer who shall be a woman."5
Her job was to handle all female and juvenile cases and to
investigate social conditions that led some women and
children to become involved in crime. The appointment of
Wells as a policewoman attracted nationwide newspaper
comment because she was an educated woman and a social
worker, and she had deliberately sought and secured the
opportunity to work in a police department.6
Before the appearance of
Gloria Myers's excellent biography of Lola Baldwin,
historians considered Alice Stebbins Wells the first
policewoman in the United States, and there remains some
disagreement.7 Regardless of who
came first, both women, Lola Baldwin and Alice Stebbins
Wells, made important and original contributions to policing
and helped show the way to the many women who followed them
into policing.
Policewomen in the 21st
Century: Progress, but Slow Growth
It is valuable to know where policewomen are today so that
their accomplishments can be appreciated and the obstacles
that they still confront are noted. A 2001 survey by the
National Center for Women and Policing of the nation's
largest municipal, county, and state law enforcement
agencies (those with more than 100 officers) found that
women make up only 12.7 percent of sworn law enforcement
positions.8 But this percentage
is deceptively high, as only the nation's largest police
agencies were surveyed, and these agencies employ the
highest percentages of policewomen. The FBI's Uniform Crime
Report (UCR), which surveys most of the U.S. police
agencies, notes that on October 31, 2003, in more than
14,000 city, county, and state police agencies, only 76,000,
or 11.4 percent, of the police officers employed were women.9
An analysis of the UCR data showed that most of the police
agencies reporting to the FBI did not employ any policewomen
in 2003.10 As for women's
status and rank in the police departments that do employ
them, a 2001 survey conducted by the National Center for
Women and Policing (NCWP) found that in large police
agencies women occupy only 9.6 percent of supervisory
positions (sergeants and lieutenants) and just 7.3 percent
of top command spots (captains and above).11
Policewomen are still overwhelmingly employed in the lowest
tier of sworn law enforcement positions (police officer,
deputy sheriff, or trooper).
The major state-level law
enforcement agencies (including state police departments,
highway patrols, or departments of public safety) lag behind
police agencies administered by other levels of government
in employing female officers. The 2003 UCR indicates that of
more than 57,000 trooper nationwide, only 6.7 percent are
women.12 Federal law
enforcement agencies employ more women than state and local
departments. As of June 2002, federal agencies such as the
FBI and the U.S. Secret Service employed about 93,000
full-time personnel authorized to make arrests and carry
firearms. Women accounted for 14.8 percent of these
employees.13 Twenty percent of
the FBI's special agents are female.
In June 2000, some 1,400
local and state law enforcement agencies with special
jurisdictions or special enforcement responsibilities were
operating in the United States. These special jurisdiction
law enforcement agencies (including campus, airport, harbor,
railroad, and mass transit police) employed more than 43,000
full-time sworn personnel who possessed police arrest
powers.14 But the number of
female officers working in these agencies is unknown.
Anecdotal evidence seems to indicate that many of these
agencies, particularly campus police departments, are
relatively female-friendly and that the percentage of female
employees in special jurisdiction police departments closely
mimics the percentage of women in federal law
enforcement-about 15 percent.
There are close to 18,000
law enforcement agencies in the United States at all levels
of government, which employ nearly 800,000 full-time law
enforcement officers. Since 1971, when the FBI first started
tracking a gender breakdown of police officers in the UCR,
the annual rate of gain has been less than half of 1 percent
per year. Factoring that into the somewhat dated statistics
regarding policewomen, we can say there are a little more
than 100,000 female police officers in the United States.
And they are not just in the lowest ranks anymore. In a
comprehensive book, author and former police captain Dorothy
Schulz concludes that women make up slightly more than 1
percent (about 200 or so) of this nation's police chiefs and
sheriffs.15 Women serve as
police chiefs in several major cities, and women have been
sheriffs as well as heads of state police organizations. Two
federal law enforcement agencies (the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration and the U.S. Park Police) have also been led
by women. In addition a number of special-jurisdiction law
enforcement agencies are currently headed by women or have
been in recent years.
Clearly, women in policing
have made progress over the years. In 1971 women made up
only 1.4 percent of all police officers. Today policewomen
account for more than 13 percent of police officers, and
they serve in all types and sizes of police agencies, in all
ranks, in all kinds of work assignments, and in all parts of
the country. Nevertheless, women remain underrepresented in
all ranks in policing and there are still serious obstacles
to overcome if policewomen are to move beyond their
statistically marginal status.
Promoting Progress for
Women in Policing
In 1998, to promote progress of women in policing, the
International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) created
an ad hoc committee on women in policing. The committee,
composed of female law enforcement executives throughout the
United States, was directed to examine the role of women in
policing and to report its findings to the IACP Board of
Officers. The study, The Future of Women in Policing:
Mandates for Action, was published in November 1998. The
survey of 800 IACP members revealed or confirmed critical
information regarding the status and future of women in
policing.
The IACP survey reported
results similar to those of the survey conducted by the
NCWP: policewomen are both underused and undervalued in law
enforcement. While confirming that the number of women in
policing is growing and progressing through the ranks, it
also revealed the following:
- There are few women in
policing, compared to their male counterparts.
- Female officers still
face bias from male officers.
- Many departments lack
strategies for recruiting women.
- Female officers may face
gender discrimination and a so-called "brass
ceiling" that inhibits promotion.
- Sexual harassment still
occurs in many departments.
- There are few mentoring
programs for female officers.16
Women Make Valuable
Contributions to Community Policing
As the 1998 IACP report noted and the current statistics
confirm, significant barriers still confront women in
policing. Yet, despite the pessimistic views of some
regarding the future of policewomen, there is much to be
optimistic about during these early years of the 21st
century. A number of legal and cultural obstacles to women
in policing have been removed. There are signs that things
are beginning to improve, and that women considering a
career in law enforcement today may not have to experience
all the hardships that confronted their predecessors.17
Community policing was the
buzzword in police circles during the 1990s. Many
departments around the country became community policing
departments or adopted parts of community policing. While
police administrators and others have different definitions
of the term, community policing is essentially a
department-wide philosophy and management approach that
promotes community, government, and police partnerships and
proactive problem solving to address crime, fear of crime,
social and physical disorder, and quality of life. It shifts
the focus of police work from handling random calls to
solving ongoing community problems.18
Even in this post-September
11 era, there are a number of indications that community
policing will survive in the 21st century, and that it is
more than a passing fad. The growing emphasis on community
policing demands police officers with problem-solving and
communication skills that enable them to interact
effectively with all segments of the public. Several
researchers have noted that women tend to be effective
communicators, and they also are good at solving problems.
Hiring policewomen (or more policewomen), retaining them,
and promoting them will help police departments succeed in
community policing.
Can Policewomen Improve
Police Response to Female Victims?
One segment of the community that has received increased
attention from the police is female victims of violence.
Although the specific numbers vary widely, it is safe to
conclude that violence against women (including domestic
violence and rape) is a significant problem in the United
States. Nationwide, an estimated 2 million women are
severely assaulted by male partners each year. Some 1,500 of
them die. The police have estimated that more than 40
percent of all calls for police service are in some way
related to domestic violence.19
Domestic violence is
probably the most common form of violence today. It is
important to note that most violent crimes against women go
unreported. In the past, it has been estimated that less
than 10 percent of domestic violence incidents were reported
to the police. Female victims of domestic violence are
sometimes reluctant to call the police because they believe
that officers will not help or that the officers will side
with the male perpetrator of the violence.
It has been suggested that
increasing the number of policewomen handling complaints of
domestic violence would dramatically enhance a police
department's ability to respond effectively to violence
against women.20 Studies have
shown that female police officers believed more strongly
(than male officers) in the need to show sympathy and
understanding to successfully handle domestic disputes. A
1985 study portrayed policewomen as being more involved in
domestic violence calls and more convinced (than male
officers) of the importance of responding to family fights
as a crucial police duty.21
Increasing the number of women in policing at all ranks and
in all operational capacities would improve the handling of
domestic violence and sexual assault cases. It would also
encourage female victims of violence to report such
incidents to the police because they will be more confident
that their pleas for help will be treated seriously.
Policewomen Are Less
Likely to Use Excessive Force
Regarding violence, it is essential to note that numerous
studies have shown that policewomen rely on a policing style
that uses less physical force and is less confrontational
than that used by many policemen. Policewomen are much less
likely to use excessive violence or police brutality while
satisfactorily performing their jobs. In the aftermath of
the infamous 1991 beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles, the
Independent Commission [Christopher Commission] on the Los
Angeles Police Department issued a report that included the
following: "Female officers utilize a style of policing
that minimizes the use of excessive force. Data examined by
the Commission indicate that LAPD female officers are
involved in use of excessive force at rates substantially
below those of male officers."22
It concluded that pervasive gender bias contributed
substantially to excessive-force problems on the LAPD.
Police agencies around the
country have lost lawsuits often involving large sums of
money to settle excessive force suits brought by citizens,
yet a number of reports in the past 25 years in the United
States and abroad show that the less confrontational
approach to policing used by the majority of female officers
and some male officers results in more effective law
enforcement and less use of force. Police departments can
substantially reduce their exposure to excessive force
lawsuits if more women are employed as police officers and
used in all facets of policing and in all ranks as well.
The Mass Media and
Policewomen
The mass media has put a positive spin on the portrayal of
policewomen in the last 15 years or so. Today the print
media does not run the sensational front-page stories about
the first policewoman hired or promoted. Articles about
women in policing are more matter-of-fact or routine these
days.
Early television serials
about female police officers in the 1970s, Get Christie
Love and Police Woman, focused on female
undercover and plainclothes officers. But starting with Cagney
and Lacey in the mid-1980s and continuing with such
shows as Hill Street Blues, NYPDBlue, ThirdWatch, Law and
Order: SVU, and the various CSI shows, female detectives
and uniformed officers are portrayed as competent, valuable
members of the police force, and other characters treat
their presence as unexceptional. The ascendance of women in
police dramas is unequivocal and pretty much
television-wide. It has occurred in movies as well. The
media attention has helped promote favorable attitudes
toward female officers among the general public, prospective
police candidates, and even police officers themselves.
Changing Attitudes
Attitudes concerning policewomen have changed for the
better, and the media has contributed to this. It has been
found that there is a growing acceptance by the public for
females in the law enforcement role. Especially noteworthy
is that most people are no longer skeptical of women's
ability to handle violent situations.23
Today, more than two-thirds
of male criminal justice students are supportive of female
officers overall and, of course, a good number of these
students will be going onto careers in policing where they
may well be working with female colleagues.24
It is now not uncommon for male police officers to
acknowledge that women make good cops. And a number of
larger and midsize police agencies are actively recruiting,
employing, and promoting more women.
Policewomen Find
Networking and Support in Associations
A number of state, regional, national, and international
associations have emerged to give support to female officers
and give an organized voice to the interests of policewomen.
The oldest national association is the International
Association of Women Police (IAWP). This association was
formed in 1956 as a continuation of the International
Association of Policewomen (IAP), which was founded in 1915
by Alice Wells and others and discontinued during the
Depression in 1932. Today it has approximately3,000 members.
Three other organizations
promoting women in policing arose in the 1990s. The National
Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives (NAWLEE),
started in 1995, has some 400 voting members at the rank of
lieutenant or above in their respective departments. The
National Center for Women and Policing (NCWP), also
organized in 1995, has several hundred members. The NCWP
produces and disseminates research on issues relevant to
women in law enforcement. A fourth national association for
U.S. policewomen, Women in Federal Law Enforcement (WIFLE),
was reorganized and renamed as WIFLE in June 1999. It also
has several hundred members.
These organizations provide
information, guidance, and support to female officers and
those considering entering the profession. These four
associations have sought to educate police administrators,
politicians, the media, and the public about the benefits of
increasing the number of women in policing.
Forcing Change
Female candidates and officers continue to file
discrimination lawsuits, and they are forcing changes in
police agencies. These lawsuits sometimes result in
court-ordered consent decrees that require agencies to
change their policies. A consent decree is an agreement
between parties (instead of a final decision by a judge)
that binds a police department to a particular course of
action in regard to hiring and promoting women in law
enforcement. Female officers have filed gender
discrimination and sexual harassment lawsuits as well, and a
majority of these have been settled in favor of the
complainant (the policewoman).25
But many of the women who file these suits face retaliation
and even ostracism from their police departments. In an
ideal world these lawsuits would not be necessary, but the
women who challenge the system today are forcing change that
will ultimately benefit the women (and men) who enter
policing tomorrow.
The history of women in
policing is nearing the time when there will be no more
"firsts." Many police agencies have already
experienced the first woman hired, the first woman to be
promoted to whatever rank, the first woman on the SWAT team,
the first woman commander, and so on. Unfortunately, the
first women in these cases have often experienced added
scrutiny as they did their jobs. They paid a price for
opening up doors for future women to pass through. Some of
these female pioneers advanced in policing while others did
not survive in their careers. But they all helped break down
barriers in large and small law enforcement agencies at all
levels of government.26
It would be very easy for
someone to be pessimistic about the future of women in
policing. The percentage of policewomen is still relatively
small and the rate of increase of policewomen has grown at a
snail's pace since 1971. Unfortunately, as the NCWP points
out, court-ordered plans still remain necessary to get some
police agencies to implement policies to recruit, promote,
and retain women.27 Two major
barriers still exist in many police departments: sexual
harassment and poor maternity leave policies.
The Next Generation
Women have made steady, albeit modest, strides in law
enforcement since the 1970s. As of the end of 2002, an
estimated 17 percent of recruits who completed police
academy training (throughout the nation's police academies)
were female.28 Many police
agencies have taken action to eliminate or reduce employment
barriers and improve working conditions.
The IACP has gone on record
stating that it "believes it is essential to strengthen
the position of women in policing-their numbers, their
professional development, their progress to positions of
leadership, and their contribution to the public service and
safety."29
It is also noteworthy that
Chief MaryAnn Viverette's presidency of the IACP in
2005-2006 is occurring as policewomen close out their first
century in U.S. policing. It is interesting that this is
occurring while the first generation of women officers in
the modern era (started in 1972) is retiring and the second
generation is coming on board police agencies. The female
baby-boomer officers who were hired by police agencies in
the 1970s and early 1980s now have more than 25 years of
service and either have retired or will be retiring in the
next few years. In case there are still lingering doubts in
anyone's mind, the efforts of these women have improved law
enforcement and paved the way for even greater contributions
by the next generation of women police officers.
1 Gloria
Myers, A Municipal Mother: Portland's Lola Greene Baldwin,
America's First Policewoman (Corvallis: Oregon State
University Press, 1995), 22.
2 Dorothy Moses Schulz, From
Social Worker to Crimefighter: Women in United States
Municipal Policing (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 1995),
22.
3 Myers, A Municipal Mother, 22.
4 Myers, A Municipal Mother, 23.
5 Janis Appier, Policing Women:
The Sexual Politics of Law Enforcement and the LAPD
(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998), 10.
6 Peter Horne, Women in Law
Enforcement,
2nd ed. (Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas,
1980), 28.
7 Myers, A Municipal Mother,
171-172.
8 National Center for Women and
Policing, Equality Denied: The Status of Women in Policing,
2001 (Los Angeles: April 2002), 4.
9 Federal Bureau of
Investigation, Crime in the United States, 2003 (Washington,
D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2004), 370.
10 FBI, telephone communication,
January14, 2005.
11 National Center, Equality
Denied, 7.
12 FBI, Crime in the United
States, 2003, 372-373.
13 U.S. Department of Justice,
Bureau of Justice Statistics, Federal Law Enforcement
Officers, 2002, by Brian Reaves and Lynn Bauer, (Washington,
D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, August 2003), 7.
14 U.S. Department of Justice,
Bureau of Justice Statistics, Census of State and Local Law
Enforcement Agencies, 2000, by Brian Reaves and Matthew
Hickman (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office,
October 2002), 12.
15 Dorothy Moses Schulz,
Breaking the Brass Ceiling: Women Police Chiefs and Their
Paths to the Top (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2004),
192.
16 International Association of
Chiefs of Police, The Future of Women in Policing: Mandates
for Action (Alexandria, Virginia: November 1998), ii.
17 P. Harrington and K. Lonsway,
"Current Barriers and Future Promise for Women in
Policing," The Criminal Justice System and Women, 3rd
ed., edited by B. Price and N. Sokoloff (New York:
McGraw-Hill, 2004), 507.
18 Peter Horne, "Not Just
Old Wine in New Bottles," Police Chief 58 (May 1991):
24.
19 The Quincy (Massachusetts)
Court Model Domestic Abuse Program Manual, unpublished
manuscript, 6.
20 Women's Advisory Council to
the Los Angeles Police Commission, A Blueprint for
Implementing Gender Equity in the Los Angeles Police
Department (Los Angeles: October 1993), 59-60.
21 R. Homant and D. Kennedy,
"Police Perceptions of Spouse Abuse: A Comparison of
Male and Female Officers," Journal of Criminal Justice,
Vol. 13, No. 1 (1985): 42-43.
22 Independent Commission on the
Los Angeles Police Department, "Summary of
Report," unpublished manuscript (1991): 3.
23 J. Dempsey and L. Forst, An
Introduction to Policing, 3rd ed. (Belmont, California:
Thomson Wadsworth, 2005), 331.
24 Dempsey and Forst, An
Introduction to Policing, 336.
25 IACP, The Future of Women in
Policing, 13, 16.
26 Harrington and Lonsway,
"Current Barriers and Future Promise for Women in
Policing," 507-508.
27 National Center for Women and
Policing, Under Scrutiny: The Effect of Consent Decrees on
the Representation of Women in Sworn Law Enforcement (Los
Angeles: Spring 2003), 3, 7-8.
28 U.S. Department of Justice,
Bureau of Justice Statistics, State and Local Law
Enforcement Training Academies, 2002, by Matthew Hickman
(Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, January
2005), 8.
29 IACP, The Future of Women in
Policing, ii.
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