Concession and Containment: The Establishment of Women in the Queensland Police, 1931–1965
| DOI | 10.1177/000486589803100202 |
| Author | Tim Premier |
| Published date | 01 August 1998 |
| Date | 01 August 1998 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Concession and Containment: The
Establishment of Women
in
the Queensland Police, 1931-1965*
Tim
Prenzlert
From the consolidation
of
the Queensland Police in
1864
until 1931 there
were no women
in
the force, despite the appointment
of
policewomen
in
all
otherAustralian states during World War
One.
The
election
of
awoman MP
gave leverage
to
the action taken
by
women's groups, andtwo policewomen
were eventually appointed
in
the face
of
union opposition
and
aresistant
police administration. Social upheaval
in
Brisbane during World War
Two
allowed for an increase in numbers and formal organisation into aPolice
Women Section. Full powers were achieved
in
1965, although women
remained in an extremely restricted role.
In
terms
of
the aspirations
of
the
women police movement, the establishment
of
women
in
the Queensland
Police was apyrrhic victory. Their limited numbers and separate
establishment confirmed their marginal and inferior status. This study
highlights the contradictory effects
of
the employment
of
women police,
including the problematic nature
of
the use
of
women
to
police their own
gender.
At
the policy level, the study demonstrates the need for strong
anti-discrimination legislation
to
curb the destructive effects
of
discretionary
decision making
in
employment, particularly
in
male dominated fields such
as policing. It also confirms dominant themes identified in the development
of
women police in·other countries. Dogged resistance forced women
to
resort
to
avariety
of
adaptive strategies, and made for aslow
and
complex
process
of
infiltration
of
police ranks.
Introduction
There is agrowing body
of
research on women in policing which illustrates
many
of
the obstacles to women's access to equality within the criminal
justice system
as
an occupation. The historical background to this continuing
conflict assists in understanding why organisations devoted to law
enforcement have resisted the new imperatives
of
equal employment
opportunity legislation (eg Heidensohn 1992; Prenzler 1995). Resistance to
gender integration appears to have been particularly pronounced in policing.
One study has alleged that:
The incursion
of
women into traditionally 'male' occupations has been opposed,
resisted, and undermined wherever it has occurred. In few other occupations,
however, has their entry been more vigorously fought -on legal, organisational,
informal, and interpersonal levels -than in policing (Martin 1980:79).
From ahistorical perspective, acentury
of
gradual and halting inclusion
of
women in policing is rich in personal narratives
of
struggle and failure, and is
*Received: 1October 1996; accepted in revised fonn: 8October 1997
tPhD, Senior Lecturer, School
of
Justice Administration, Griffith University, Brisbane 4111.
Email: T.Prenzler@gu.edu.au
119
120
(199B)
31
The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology
revealing
of
varied personal and institutional strategies
of
inclusion and
resistance. Most histories
of
policing have reflected the marginalised status
of
policewomen and failed to recognise the hidden war to keep police work safe
for men (Carrier 1988). There has also been afailure to recognise how the
intensely gender differentiated nature
of
modem police services impacted on
the way policing has been done (Finnane 1994).
The 'progress' of women in policing has tended to follow apattern
reflective both
of
the similarity
of
police agencies in Western countries and
of
the influence
of
broader movements -such
as
international feminism and the
human rights movement (Heidensohn 1996). 'Local' and 'regional' conditions
have, however, affected the pace and nature
of
change, and can be usefully
researched to understand how specific conditions and shifting power relations
have assisted or retarded progressive change. Regional studies, such
as
this
one, which 'not only accommodate but mark out and privilege women's
experiences [have] the potential
...
to add new analytical dimensions
to
female specificity in history' (Reekie 1994:10).
The major primary source for this study was afile titled 'Commissioner's
Correspondence' held in the Queensland State Archives and Central Registry,
Queensland Police Service Headquarters.1The
file
contains official memos,
letters, submissions, reports and newspaper clippings on the employment of
women police. This material was supplemented with transcripts
of
parliamentary debates, the Police Union journal and conference minutes, and
by interviews with
21
informants. The large majority
of
informants were
former policewomen, with afew former policemen. The latter were selected
because they -had worked with policewomen or had some involvement in
policy-related areas such
as
in the Union. Some informants simply provided
asmall amount
of
information over the telephone. Others provided lengthy
taped interviews covering issues such
as
reasons for applying to join, nature
of
duties, experiences
of
discrimination, public responses, relations between
policewomen, and job satisfaction. Several informants joined the Queensland
Police in the early-1940s in the second decade
of
women police.
Unfortunately, the first two female officers in Queensland and the first
Supervisor
of
the Police Women Section were deceased when the study was
begun.
Part One
of
this paper reports on the data in anarrative format focusing
on
transitional processes in the establishment
of
policewomen. Part Two analyses
the data in terms
of
anumber
of
key conceptual frameworks. These are (1)
patriarchal resistance to sharing the benefits
of
acareer in policing, especially
through the mythology
of
women's inferior physical ability within the context
of
the mythology
of
the physicality
of
policing; (2) opposing models
of
policing centred around a,masculinised concept
of
'law enforcement' and a
feminised concept
of
'preventive justice'; (3) ambivalence in the role
of
policewomen in both protecting women and engaging in forms
of
repressive
control
of
women; (4) ambivalence and insecurity in the effect
of
Commissioners' discretion over women's employment -at times favouring
and at times resisting the inclusion
of
women -in the context of the
distinctive conservatism
of
Queensland in generating asocial and political
climate acutely antagonistic to gender integration.
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