Women in Law Enforcement

Women in Law Enforcement

Introduction

The U.S. Department of Justice conducts a census of federal, state, and local law enforcement every four years; the last census was conducted in 2004. According to a Bureau of Justice statistician, in 2004, females represented 16 percent of all employed federal law enforcement officers (Schulz, 2004).

Moreover, about one-third of these female officers were members of a racial or ethnic minority, with Hispanics/Latinas representing the largest group at 33 percent. In its census, the Justice Department did not report the number of female law enforcement personnel at the state and local level. However, a 2001 study on the status of women in policing, conducted by the National Center for Women in Policing, indicated that females represent approximately 13 percent of state and local law enforcement personnel, with women of color representing about 5 percent of those positions (Schulz, 2004).

Discussion

History of Women in Law Enforcement

Historically, policing has very much been a male-dominated profession and females' entry into the profession was not met with open arms. In the early 1900s, some police departments recognized the need for women to assist in the department on cases involving women and children. The early female officers were referred to as police matrons and lacked the full power and authority of male police officers. In 1910, Alice Stebbins Wells was appointed as a detective by the Los Angeles Police Department and is considered the first official policewoman to be hired in the United States (Tracy-Stratton, 1986). With Wells's hiring into the police department, many other departments followed this lead and began hiring more women in their departments. However, these early hires were relegated to working solely with women and juveniles and in support positions to male officers. In fact, many of these policewomen were required to have more education than their male counterparts, were not permitted to perform patrol duties, and were not allowed to compete with male officers for promotions. Thus, females' entry into the policing profession was fraught with discrimination and bias. The practice of discrimination against women in policing continued throughout the 1960s and 1970s (Williams, 1989).

Impact of the Equal Opportunity Act

Throughout the 1970s, the feminist movement was well under way and continued to draw attention to the plight of women in society. With increasing attention being directed toward female inequity in the workplace (as well as to other groups in society), additional legislation was implemented. The Equal Opportunity Act of 1972 sought to strengthen Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by again asserting that those seeking employment should be treated fairly and should not be discriminated against based on their race, sex, religion, color, or national origin. An additional provision of the Equal Employment Act of 1972 was the creation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Program, which instituted policies such as affirmative action and offered assistance to those who may have been discriminated against. Even with this legislation, however, women faced additional hurdles in entering the policing profession (French, ...