Female
officers on the rise
By
Danielle Lagana
On-line Forty-Niner
Sgt.
Madonna L. Gage is one of five female officers
employed at Cal State Long Beach. For 22
years she has been in law enforcement. She
began her career in the South in 1974 and
has seen many changes in the industry. Like
other female officers, two challenges she
faced were proving herself and breaking
the glass ceiling.
"You
have to prove yourself at each level,"
Gage said. "Once you pass the acceptance
test you are treated like any other officer.
If you do not pass the test, the rest of
your career can have a stigma that you were
not aggressive enough, or cannot handle
suspects, or whatever, when you did not
meet the expectations of other officers."
The
national average of employed female officers
is 13 percent. Although the statistic is
low, it is considered to be higher than
ever before.
"Most
authority figures in law enforcement are
male because women, compared to men, are
new to the field," said Charles Dreveskracht,
chairman of department of criminal justice
at Oklahoma University.
"Our
society has come a long way in its thinking.
Now more than ever, our female officers
are respected by their peers as well as
the public for their positive attitudes
and calming effect they have on potentially
volatile situations," Dreveskracht
said. "In the law enforcement community,
we have come to realize that strength is
not necessarily the most important attribute
when dealing with potentially violent situations."
The
number of female peace officers is on the
rise, in part because of the recruitment
directed at women.
"We
have 658 uniformed women and 6,618 uniformed
men," said Lt. Maryann Farmer, office
of public affairs for the California Highway
Patrol. "The CHP used to have a goal
to have a certain number of women in the
patrol in the early 80s. They had two separate
lists, one for men, and one for women. There
is just one list now."
"We
attempt to recruit women. We have a dedicated
portion of the CHP website specifically
dedicated towards recruiting women,"
Darren Greene, CHP recruitment officer said.
Greene
said he feels the apprehension from male
officers has disintegrated because of the
high ability women have shown to have.
"Women
have proven time and time again they are
more than capable of performing the duties
of an officer," said Greene.
Project
co-Director and co-editor of the Sourcebook
of Criminal Justice Statistics Kathleen
Maguire, said the National Center for Women
and Policing has published several reports
on the status of women and women as ethnic
minorities in law enforcement, however,
the data does not reflect the true picture
for the last two years.
During
2001, the cities of Los Angeles and Long
Beach ranked fairly high by comparison of
population in the United States for employing
women in law enforcement. According to the
Sourcebook of Criminal Justice the LAPD
employs 12.5 percent of female police officers.
The Long Beach Police Department has an
8.7 percent rate of employed female officers.
"My
perceptions of women in law enforcement
are, in my opinion, quite balanced,"
Captain Stan Skipworth of the University
Police said. "My first training officer
was a woman, as was my first partner as
a detective, and many of my supervisors
were women."
"I
do feel that women are finding very effective
ways to accentuate the appropriate aspects
of traditional law enforcement that were
long held almost universally by men,"
Skipworth said. "I think women bring
unique and very effective ideas to resolve
existing issues in all communities."
In
2004 the CHP will celebrate 30 years of
women in the California Highway Patrol.
A few pioneer female officers are noted
by the Feminist Majority Foundation. The
first female officer "sworn to uphold
the duties of a police officer" in
the United States breaking the wall of an
all male profession was by Lola Baldwin
in 1905.
The
first African-American female officer to
join law enforcement in the United States
was Georgia Robinson in 1919. Several years
later the first female police chief to be
hired was Penny Harrington and nine years
later, in 1994 the first African-American
appointed as police chief in a major city
was Beverly Harvard, from Atlanta, Ga.
"You
have to prove yourself at each level. Once
you pass the acceptance test you are treated
like any other officer. If you do not pass
the test, the rest of your career can have
a stigma that you were not aggressive enough,
or cannot handle suspects, or whatever,
when you did not meet the expectations of
other officers."
-Sgt. Madonna L. Gage
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