Abstract Women have worked within our law enforcement system for over one hundred and seventy years. This paper examines the history and current status of women in policing and the challenges they have faced. History of women in policing will be presented from the first instances of women being hired as law enforcement to their current status. Research information indicates that, despite high levels of sexual harassment and discrimination, women police officers perform as well as their male peers although their numbers are small within their departments.
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Introduction This paper will denote a walkthrough of the history of women in policing. According to our reading the history of women working in law enforcement has been in effect for more than 100 years, since 1845 when New York City hired its first female police officer. In 1888 Massachusetts and New York both passed legislation to hire woman officers to take care of female prisoners. In the 1900’s women were hired but they had to have certain criteria such as height, weight, strength and agility testing to prove they were just as capable as their male coworkers.
It was in 1968 when Indianapolis assigned the first women officers to patrol as equals to men. In 1994 and 1995 the first two women offices were appointed as chief of police in Portland and Atlanta. (Shusta, Levine, Wong, Olson, & Harris, 2011). National studies continually find discrimination and sexual harassment are factors in police departments which supervisors and commanders not only tolerate by others, but also may be perpetrators themselves.
Hostile work environments and discrimination have been known to keep women from law enforcement agencies in significant numbers and also hinders them from being promoted up the ranks to policy-making positions, thus not enabling for a new style of community policing to be introduced nor willingly accepted for use. Since 1995, the National Center for Women & Policing has been a large contributing force behind increasing the numbers of women in policing.
With women in policing they have become a positive impact in policing causing the reduction of police brutality, the increased efficacy in police response to domestic violence, and the increased emphasis on conflict resolution over force, mandates that we strive for gender balance in policing. As of 1997, the continued studies show the increases of women in law enforcement remains stuck at a slow rate.
During this time frame it is clear that there has been progress in areas where women law enforcement officers and women’s organizations have taken legal action to fight the discriminatory hiring and promotion practices by having court ordered consent decrees force agencies to increase the numbers of women or minorities hired and promoted. (National Center for Women ; Policing, June 1998 Revise) As reported in 1998 women comprise only 13. 8% of all law enforcement positions nationwide an increase of one-half of one percent from 1997 and 3. percent since 1990 when women made up 10. 6% of officers.
As of 1998 it is stated that women only held 7. 5% of Top Command law enforcement positions, and 9. 6% of Supervisory positions. Women of color held 1. 9% of Top Command law enforcement positions and 3. 1% of Supervisory positions. By 1999 women comprise 14. 3% of all law enforcement positions nationwide. This percentage is a meager increase of one-half of one percent from 1998 and only 5. 3 percentage points since 1990, when women made up only 9% of law enforcement.
By 2000 women comprised 13% of law enforcement positions among all branches of law enforcement agencies in the United States with 100 or more officers. At this point officers of color hold 4. 9% of these positions. Over a nine year span, women in law enforcement ranks have increased from 9% in 1990 to 13% in 2000, a gain of only 4%. The gains for women in policing are so slow and they are not projected to reach equal representation or gender balance within the police profession for at least 70 years.
History states that during the year 2000, women held 7. 3% of sworn Top Command law enforcement positions and 10. 3% of Supervisory positions. At this time women of color only held 1. 7% of sworn Top Command law enforcement positions and 3. 2% of Supervisory positions. Women and Policing states that in 2001, women accounted for 12. 7% of all law enforcement positions in large agencies (with 100 or more sworn personnel) this percentage is only four percent higher than in 1990, when women made up 9% of sworn officers.
Women comprised only 8. 1% of all sworn personnel in small and rural agencies with less than 100 sworn women officers. In totaling the figures they indicate that women represent only 11. 2% of all law enforcement personnel in the U. S. Although women gained percentages each year in their representation within large police agencies from 1972 to 1999, there is evidence that this trend had stalled or even reversed. In 2000 and 2001, the representation of women in large police agencies actually declined from the year before from 14. % in 1999 and 13. 0% in 2000 to 12. 7% in 2001. At the present rate, women will not achieve equality in large police agencies for several decades if at all.
Despite overwhelming evidence women and men are not equally capable of police work due to widespread bias in police hiring, selection practices and recruitment policies keeps the numbers of women in law enforcement low in percentage increases throughout the years. By 2007 there were nearly 4,000 state police, 19,400 sheriffs’, and 55,300 local women police officers.
In 2008, 62 reporting federal law enforcement agencies estimated there were approximately 18,200 (20%) of which were women. The numbers of 2007 and 2008 amount to, a combined total of almost 100,000 female sworn officers nationwide in federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. As there has been no updated information since 2008 the statistics of that time frame will be considered most recent. Conclusion The history of women in policing has been one of continuous struggle.
Throughout their tenure in law enforcement, women have found themselves placed in roles based on their gender and not there competency. Whether guarding female prisoners or officers on the street, women served as agents tasked with the duty of saving women and children, and handling those crimes that needed a woman’s touch. Women still struggle to obtain equal treatment in the workplace, to be seen by their male counterparts not as policewomen but as police officers (Rabe-Hemp, 2008; Grennan, 2000).
Women have only been able to serve as patrol officers for a small period of time in which they have been working in law enforcement; yet, in the years they have, notable progress has been made. Women have clearly shown that they are not afraid and departments have implemented training to address sexual discrimination within the workplace. As time goes on it is likely that women will continue to face challenges as they enter into law enforcement in even greater numbers; but as in the past, each of these challenges can and will be overcome. (Comeau, Klofas. 2010)
