Historical Background
In 1845, New York City hired 2 women to work as matrons after the American Female Moral Reform Society campaigned for the position.
Mary Owens was the 1st woman to receive the power to arrest people. She received the rank of policeman from Chicago Police Department in 1893. She was the widow of an officer who had passed away. Occasionally, police departments would employ widows as a type of death benefit for their husbands.
Lola Baldwin was the 1st woman to work as a sworn police officer in the United States. This was for the Portland, Oregon Police Department during the Lewis and Clark Exposition.
1910-1920
Alice Wells was the 1st woman to be called a policewoman. She joined the Los Angeles Police Department in 1910. There has been some debate about who is really the first; Wells or Baldwin. There is alot much controversy because in the beginning when women started working in the police field, they mainly did work that can is now classified as social work. Matrons, social workers, and women working for private organizations all worked in positions for the moral betterment of society. None of these women had the same status as the men working as police officers, but pushed to create opportunities for women who wanted a career in law enforcement. Their efforts made advancements in the struggle toward women's equality.
In 1915, the International Association of Policewomen was created to help organize a broad base of support for women choosing a career in policing. Throughout the 1910s and 1920s Americans widely accepted the idea that women's inherent nurturing qualities should be focused on fixing societal problems associated with moral weakness. As a result, numerous women's bureaus were started up across the country in police stations. These bureaus worked on cases relating to women and children. Some examples are young runaways, shoplifting, and prostitution.
1930 - 1940
In the 1930s with the Great Depression came changes in how employment was generally viewed, and as a result women's employment suffered. A married woman with a job was seen as wrongfully taking a job away from a man who needed it to support his family. Women were viewed as being married or on the path of marriage therefore not needing a job. As jobs became more and more scarce, women's career aspirations suffered.
In the mid-1930s the FBI was formed, and law enforcement officers began to project a role of "combatant of crime," turning away from the idea that police should work as social agents against moral decline or destitution.
World War II brought changes to policing personnel. More women were hired during the war, but most of these women were limited to auxiliary work. The women that joined the police force during this period were there to assist men who did not join the military. Women worked as dispatchers or clerical workers within the departments and men still had patrol duties and worked the streets to fight crime. Women worked primarily as either helpers or they worked with children and young women. The role that women police officers originally played, such as social workers, still strongly defined how women were used in the police force.
After World War II
There was a new push to advance women in the profession through integration with the men. This time period saw a new creation of the International Association of Women Police and an increased enthusiasm for the profession as a career distinct from that of social worker. All these changes led to greater demands for equal treatment and opportunities for women police officers. In 1968 two women from the Indianapolis Police department were allowed to go on patrol duty just as the men. In 1972 Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act was expanded to include public agencies from discriminating against women in hiring, recruiting, promotions, and working conditions. In addition, the Revenue Sharing Act and the Crime Control Act, both concentrated on withholding funds from departments that discriminated. From 1960 to 1980 the percentage of women in police agencies doubled. In 1985 Penny Harrington became the first woman to be named Chief of Police for a major city which was Portland, Oregon. In1994 in Atlanta, Georgia Beverly J. Harvard became the first African American woman to earn Chief of Police for a large city.