From the time the first police force was established in the early nineteenth century, police work has been dominated by males and closely identified with masculinity. Nonetheless, policewomen are not a recent phenomenon. Women have been involved in policing for more than fifty years. However, the initial idea to assign police work exclusively to males was a natural extension of the existing belief in the appropriate division of labor in society. Historically, men have been responsible for physical labor and the physical protection of the family and community. Generally, women and children were regarded as weak and incapable of protecting themselves. Policewomen have had to fight a hard, uphill battle for inclusion in the police force and, beyond that, respect for the attributes they bring to the force. It is a battle they continue to fight today. This paper explores the history of women in policing, with particular emphasis on women police officers in the Miami Police Department.
The modern police were initiated in England and then the United States in the first half of the nineteenth century. The 1829 act establishing the London police created the first police force in the world organized to prevent crime by providing constant patrol. In order to gain the citizen respect and cooperation necessary for it success, the police force was organized on a military model with strict discipline and limited officer discretion. The men selected had to be superior physically, intellectually and temperamentally. The officers were required to be above average in height and in strength and in the United States policemen were armed with lethal weapons. In both societies the exercise of authority and the ability to use force were responsibilities long assigned to men and denied to women.
Nonetheless, women did begin to enter the police force early in the twentieth century. Their inclusion was the result of the social reform ...