Running head: DOUBLE MINORITY WOMEN IN POLICING
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Double Minority Women in Policing:
Ethic Minority and its Barriers
Britney Joseph
Central Methodist University
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DOUBLE MINORITY WOMEN IN POLICING
Abstract
In today’s society, the number of women in law enforcement has grown tremendously
over the years. According to the Labor Statistics survey female police officers on patrol account
for 12.6% of all policing in 2012 (Horrigan, 2003). However, it is important to take a look at
how women integrated themselves into what has been said to be a “Man’s” occupation. Over the
years with the integration into this field, women are looked upon as the minority and history has
shown us not all minority groups are treated with the respect and equality they deserve.
Sometimes it takes years to develop a certain rapport with others in order to change their mind
frame of thinking. In this case women in policing are challenged with changing the minds and
views of society that being a police officer is strictly for men. Women of color or minority
background are faced with the challenge of proving they can do the work just the same as their
male counter parts. Within the last twenty years the number of women being of ethnic
backgrounds has also grown to numbers that no one ever predicted. Being a woman in law
enforcement alone made you a minority. So what do we call the women who were already
considered a minority by the color of their skin or by their ethnic back ground? This document
shows the various struggles and barriers minority women in policing have to go through every
day both in the United States and internationally to overcome various hurdles in the field. The
importance of this study is to figure out how a nation that is made up of so many minority groups
continue to single out smaller specified groups of minorities and how they are treated different.
Has the growth of women officers been an equal experienced or has it caused more work, most
importantly for minority women in law enforcement? This document looks at the United States,
Great Britain, New Zealand and Australia. These four countries each are represented with various
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ethnic minority groups of people that gives a broader base for study on female minority police
officers.
Minority Women in Policing: Ethnicity and its Barriers
Born into the world as an African American female discrimination has not been a foreign
experience. Although not fully understanding what it meant when people talked about being a
double minority until graduating high school and enter the study of criminal justice in college.
Embarking into the field of criminal justice as a “Black and Female” understanding the phrase
“Double Minority” is imperative. Preparing for the many barriers and obstacles that exist in the
21st Century not only for African American females but for fellow female who are considered
double minority seems imperative especially for those looking into Law Enforcement as a career.
Within the last twenty years the number of women in law enforcement as well as the
number of minority women has grown rapidly over the years. Living in a nation that is built by
many ethnicities you would think that struggle with minorities in the work place wouldn’t be as
prevalent as it is today. More specific for women in policing. It’s has been decades since the
equality act was passed and minorities worked side by side with whites. Females as well as
minority groups work alongside each other completing equal the amount of work as white men.
Why do they have to go through so many obstacles in order to work in law enforcement, are they
the same for each minority group. Has the growth of women officers been an equal experience
among all women in policing despite race? This document aims to identify and analyze the
United States, Great Britain, New Zealand and Australia’s women in law enforcement and the
many barriers those women of minority groups have to face within the field.
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DOUBLE MINORITY WOMEN IN POLICING
Many occupations today are dominated by either female workers or male workers. Most
nurses are women, for example, and most engineers are men. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
done in 2002 says women have has a sufficiently grater increase in integrating into male
dominate professions verses males integrating into a female dominate profession. For women in
policing it has been a three hundred and sixty percent increase. According to the labor force
statistics survey in 2012 there were a total of one thousand one hundred and forty women police
officers. Of those women 44% were African American, 7% were Asian and 42% were Hispanic
(Horrigan, 2003). Before the 1970s, nearly all police officers in the United States were white
men; women comprised less than 2 percent of sworn personnel, and “policewomen” served in
specialized positions (Martin & Jurik, 2006).Racial and ethnic minorities also were greatly
underrepresented in policing. America’s policing was adopted from the British model of early
policing where their strongest and most powerful show of law enforcement was the Sheriff.
Before the 1830’s policing in the United States was mostly handled by townsmen who appointed
themselves as some form of authority. The first official Police department in the United States
was formed in 1836 in Boston. The modern police department was born out of urban mob
violence that wracked the nation’s cities in the 19th century. Boston created the first formal U.S.
police department in 1838; New York formed its police department in 1844 and Philadelphia, in
1854 (Martin & Jurik, 2006). Politics dominated the departments and determined the recruitment
of new officers and promotion of supervisors. Police agencies evolved slowly through the second
half of the 19th century. Prior to the States adopting the British model of policing women was
used in early stages of law enforcement throughout Britain, Australia and London. The role of
what we refer to now as police women was known and referred to as “Police Matrons” (Schulz,
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DOUBLE MINORITY WOMEN IN POLICING
2004). Police matrons’ duties varied, but they included sheltering and protecting women and
children in police custody. The roles of women in law enforcement were similar to their roles at
home as wives and mothers. They were sought after because children who were under police
custody needed someone to watch over them. Female criminals needed people who would be
able to get next to them without worrying about sexual acts. In the late 1800’s and early 19th
century the role of police women was still undefined, they only accounted for less them 1% of
the law enforcement agencies. This was seen more overseas then in the states (Seklecki&
Paynich, 2007).
The first known matron in the U.S was in 1854, also called jail matrons was hired by
New York City to search and guard female prisoners whit no law enforcement powers (Schulz,
2004). Gradually, they extended their responsibilities beyond strictly custodial work nevertheless
continued in work that reinforced their traditional role as caregivers to other women while
simultaneously ensuring careers for the upper-middle-class women (Schulz, 2004) in Portland
Oregon. The first female officers were given powers of her male counterpart. As remarkable as
that was, women still seemed powerless, disrespected and unheard. Women’s inroads into
policing came to a halt during the 1930s. Hiring was frozen during that decade. Many leaders of
the policewomen’s movement understood the threat they posed to men and sought to reduce it.
They created Women’s Bureaus that were separated administratively from the rest of the
department. Since female officers roles were similar to mothers and house wives they avoided
wearing uniforms, carrying guns. Most often female officers still showed their passive and
submissive side as they worked on ways to fully integrate into the world of policing.
Policewomen often sought a peripheral role (Martin & Jurik, 2006).After the pause on female
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police officers being hired, women slowly found them-selves integrating into the male roles of
policing both in the United States and Internationally. According to Heidensohn, by the 1940’s,
in the U.S alone there were more than five thousand women serving active roles in policing. Still
women only accounted for less than one percent of all police personnel.
The early history of female police officers in Europe and Australia closely parallels that
of the United States. In 1903, the first female officer was sworn in in Stuttgart, Germany. By
1915, at least 35 German cities employed policewomen, and women officers had been hired in
Denmark, Great Britain, Holland, Hungary, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Siam, Sweden, Switzerland
(Schulz, 1998), and Australia (Prenzler,1998). If that wasn’t enough for just women to integrate
themselves into policing, those of ethnic decent or known and considered minorities filtered their
way into this field of work.
The first minority woman in the world to be hired as a sworn female officer was in 1888.
Since then African American, Latinos, Native American, Indian, Muslim, and Asian women
officers have continued to be a part of the police department and criminal justice field of work.
In the United States change for women in policing began in the 1960s and accelerated in the
1970s and 1980s in the United States. Now in the 20th century we see more and more ethnic and
minority female officers being hired to be used a pons in the field. The ideal officer is neither
male nor female but a combination of admirable and reputable traits that embody what our
communities desire in the new age of policing. Those officers are only hired their ethnic
backgrounds because stats show demanding crime areas are majority minorities. The definition
of ethnic minority is a group that has different national or cultural traditions from the majority of
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the population. The definition of an ethnic group, “ethnos” – are people of the same race or
nationality who share a distinctive culture. Women of ethnic minority are defined as the minority
once they abandon their traditional and cultural values.
In New Zealand, England and Australia, the integration of minority women began about a
decade after the U.S. 1898. Yet still has parallel trends in the United States when it comes to the
treatment of minorities. Since Title VII’s passing women have faced numerous challenges, yet
their numbers have not dwindled in the police force (Natarajan, 2009). The progression, may be
slow, it is being noticed. Many have argued that the changing demographics within departments
in the last forty years have helped to tear down the largely homogenous police culture and create
