NCJ Number
155121
Date Published
1995
Length
178 pages
Annotation
This volume traces the history of women in municipal policing in the United States, beginning with the early involvement of police matrons and social workers dealing solely with women and children and progressing to the acceptance of women as crimefighters with the same status as their male colleagues.
Abstract
The history reveals how initial demands for a limited, specialized role based on gender were replaced by demands for equality by later generations of women with totally different social histories and self-images. By the late 1960's, these demands included participation in uniform patrol duty. The discussion also notes how women in occupations that grew out of women's maternal roles have achieved a degree of equality without repudiating their past, whereas female police were forced to reject their history to move into the mainstream of their profession. By the end of 1990, women made up 12.8 percent of all sworn officers in municipal police agencies serving populations over 1 million and 8.1 percent of the almost 600,000 sworn officers in all local law enforcement agencies. Photographs, chapter notes, index, and reference lists