Women and Policing

Women first entered a police car as patrol officers in 1968 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Until that time, the role of women in policing in the United States was limited to duties that were considered appropriate and safe for women. Indianapolis policewomen Betty Blankenship and Elizabeth Coffal changed the role of women in policing when they went on patrol dressed in uniforms and carrying guns. The Indianapolis Police Department was the first police department in the United States to assign women to full-time field patrol.

The concept of separate spheres for men and women in policing was based on entrenched societal attitudes regarding the nature of “men's work” and “women's work.” Women were first employed in police departments in the United States in 1910 after Alice Stebbins Wells was hired as the first official policewoman with the power of arrest. Wells believed that the power of arrest provided her the authority to do her job without having to rely on a policeman to come and make arrests. From 1910 until 1968, Wells and her successors fulfilled a number of police duties, including assisting mothers and their children, working with women victims and offenders, participating as decoys on vice operations, and providing clerical support staff.

Until the late 1960s, women were not permitted to go on patrol because of clichéd beliefs that patrol is “man's work” and is “too dangerous” for a woman. According to gender stereotypes entrenched in police departments, women did not possess either the physical strength to make arrests or the physical stature to deter crime.

During the 1970s, the employment of women as patrol officers was questioned by male officers who believed that women would not be able to back them up if the need should arise. These men were not convinced by research that found women to be successful at patrol work. Many male officers believed that policewomen are detrimental to the safety of policemen on patrol. This belief became part of the organizational culture of policing and may explain why the use of women on patrol is still questioned by many officers.

Overall, three features stand out when examining the entry of women into police work. First is the remarkable stamina that pioneer policewomen possessed when they joined police departments and made organizational changes in a workplace that historically was a male domain. Second is the fact that federal legislation and court cases were the only ways that guaranteed women the equal opportunity to be hired, promoted, and protected from discrimination and harassment in police departments. Third is the body of research accumulated over the past thirty years that has concluded that women officers are competent in the field.