page_title: Women in law enforcement in the United Kingdom
section_title: Entry into the profession
hierarchical_section_title: Women in law enforcement in the United Kingdom / History / Entry into the profession
caption_attribution_description: This week we are celebrating women in policing It wasn't until 1918 that female officers could join the force, and at this time they had to be 45-years-old. At this time in history, women officers did not receive personal protective equipment and did not have any powers of arrest. Female officers eventually gained the powers of arrest in 1933 and 80 years later female officers account for over 30 per cent of all officers, working in key roles across the force including command teams, the dogs unit, firearms and our response teams. If you have any photos of female friends or relatives working in policing you would be happy for us to share please send them in to Birmingham_comms@west-midlands.police.uk or send them to us via Twitter @WMPolice
context_page_description: The role of women in law enforcement in the United Kingdom has grown in recent decades, with women now making up a significant minority of each of the British police forces. As with other countries, police forces in the UK were entirely male at the start of the 20th century. The first female officers were recruited during World War I. Their numbers were limited for many decades, but have gradually increased since the 1970s.
  By March 2016, 28.6% of police officers in England and Wales were women. This was an increase from 23.3% in 2007. Women also make up a majority of the non-sworn police staff. Notable women in the police forces include Cressida Dick, the current Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service.
  Until 1999, women in the police force had their rank title prefixed the word "Woman", or the letter W in abbreviations; this construction is still sometimes used in the press and by individuals. From 1919 until January 1993, female officers' warrant numbers also came from a different series than male officers'.
context_section_description: In August 1915, Edith Smith became the first British woman to be appointed a police officer with full powers of arrest. Her duties were to deal with cases where women were involved. She was particularly concerned with trying to reduce the number of prostitutes in Grantham who were attracted there by the nearby army base. Female officers were also recruited in Hull and Southampton later that year. Salisbury, Liverpool and Glasgow had twenty women Constables already attested by 1919.
  Sir Leonard Dunning, Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary wrote an article in Police Review in 1918. About two of the six pages of his annual Report concerned the employment of women in professional police work, including the possibility of them having the powers of arrest. Many Chief Constables saw the role of women as 'Clerks and Chauffeurs' and thought women could possibly be employed as Special Constables. The Chief Constable of Wolverhampton wrote an article in Police Review and Parade Ground Gossip in which he listed a range of duties women could undertake within the Force. On 16 November 1921 the Metropolitan Commissioner of Police, Sir Nevil Macready, who was considered to be setting the standard throughout England, issued an order that with the possibility of women being appointed to the Police Service, these would reflect current requirements for male officers; "a minimum height would be established, though at 5 feet 4 inches this was considerably lower than that for men." (White was officially documented as being five feet five and one half inch tall.) Macready added that women with dependent young children would be barred from service, women officers were not to be sworn in as constables, and they would not have the right to a pension.
  Once police forces had recruited a small number of women, they tended to organise them into separate units. They were typically given jobs that specifically involved arresting or caring for women and children. In 1919, the Metropolitan Police recruited 110 women to be unattested policewomen (i.e. not having powers of arrest) to serve in the Women Police Patrols, led by Superintendent Sofia Stanley. However, in 1922, their numbers were cut to just 24, after a committee of Parliament recommended disbanding them entirely. Similar cuts to women numbers happened in other forces. Ostensibly a result of budget cuts, these happened at a time when the wartime women’s rights movements were petering out and in some cases being undone. In 1923, the Women Police Patrols became attested officers and their numbers were increased to 50.
  The Home Office set up the Baird Committee in 1920 on the employment conditions and attesting of women in the Service. Two Inspectors of Constabulary gave evidence as did several senior people in the Service, including two attested Sergeants from provincial forces, Florence Mildred White and Ethel Gale from Gloucestershire.
  Although there was little change or recruitment of female officers in the 1920s, more rules and guidelines were published to give them a clearer position. Further guidelines were published by the Home Office in 1931. Dorothy Peto moved to the Metropolitan Police in 1930 and became the first attested superintendent two years later. In her 14-year tenure in charge of its A4 (Women Police) division, their numbers were increased from under 60 to over 200, and it employed half the policewomen in the United Kingdom. In 1948, women were for the first time permitted to join the Police Federation.
caption: Policewomen in the Birmingham City Police during the inter-war years.
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