Women On The Police Force

1. Two issues which have been discussed in your text are the issue of women and minorities in policing. Examine the historical process of women in policing and how they evolved to be accepted from the matron to officer. Also, discuss the role of the African-American Police Officer. In your discussion of both it is important to address the issue of Institutionalized Discrimination. Defend your answer with research.

Women policing was not an option until 1893 when Chicago's metropolitan police department hired Marie Owens. But it wasn't until 1910, when Alice Stebbins Wells was hired as a Los Angeles police officer, that a women officer was able to make an arrest. At first women were being hired as matrons because there was a vast increase in crimes committed by women and children. In response to the increase of women and children crimes the state had to do something so they decided hire a women officer but she only did social work and was not able to make arrests, enforce the law, or process a crime scene till 1910. Later in the 1960's the view of women and minority discrimination was making a drastic change. In 1963 an act was passed called the Equal Pay Act of 1963 which states, ------------, and the Title VII of the civil rights act of 1964 was established which banned discrimination in employment based on gender, race, creed, color, and/or national origin. Then finally in 1972 Pennsylvania offered to both male and female the state trooper job, or road patrol. That was the first step for women becoming real police officers.

Even though it was better, one of the biggest problems that women on the force faced was institutionalized discrimination. Institutionalized discrimination is defined as the denial of an opportunity and equal rights to an individual and/or group that results from the habitual operations of an organization or institution in society. This type of discrimination was not an issue with just women, in1893