The United States Criminal Justice System

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

For two centuries in the United States, women have struggled to be seen at the equal social, political, and economic status of that of men. The Women’s Rights Movement was not just an era in history or time, it is a past, present, and future progressive concern for half of the population – the women. The very first acknowledgement of the gender discrimination was the publication entitled A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, by Mary Wollstonecraft in Britain in 1792 (Flexner, 1976). In 1863, the formation of the Women’s National Loyal League held a conference with many women’s rights activist groups around the country (Flexner, 1976). Over a decade later in 1878, Susan B. Anthony wrote and submitted a proposal that focused on the right to vote for women (Baker, 2002). This was developed mainly because the Fourteenth Amendment did not pertain to women, or gender at all, and how the proposal written by Susan B. Anthony should be a declared and permanent amendment of the United States Constitution (Baker, 2002).

Forty-one years later, in the year 1919, the United States Congress submitted Susan B. Anthony’s proposed amendment to be ratified by the states individually (Baker, 2002). On August 18, 1920, the proposed amendment became the permanent Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which was all made possible by the state of Tennessee being the final requisite vote (Baker, 2002). The Nineteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution officially declares that no matter a person’s gender, any United States citizen will never be denied the right to vote (Baker, 2002). The Women’s Rights Movement made great progress that was beginning to show. In 1948, the United Nations Charter acknowledged the equal rights for women and established the Commission on the Status of Women (Baker, 2002).

The Civil Rights Act of 1964, assisted in the more aggressive launch of the Women’s Rights Movement. During the 1960’s and 1970’s, more militant women’s groups and organizations began to form which led to the development of the Women’s Liberation Movement that primarily focused on the social issues (Baker, 2002). Some of these important organizations include: the National Organization for Women (NOW), National Women’s Political Caucus, Equal Right Amendment Ratification Council, and the Coalition of Labor Union Women (Baker, 2002). Due to the changes in societal, political, and legal structures, women of the United States were able to have the freedom to dream and accomplish the goals they set out to achieve in all aspects of life; especially career wise. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries were turning points for women in the workplace. Not only was it a time for women to sit behind desks, but it was a time for them to get their foot in the door and keep it open for the many generations to follow.

In the United States Criminal Justice System, the percentage of women in the law enforcement field has gradually progressed. From just under two percent in the 1970’s to over twelve percent presently, women are striving for equal opportunities within the law enforcement agencies (Langton, 2010). In the middle of the nineteenth century, women began their work in the criminal justice field as prison matrons solely for women and young girls or custodial labor (Garcia, 2003). Only sixteen major cities in the United States allowed women to perform these duties; New York City Police Department was a strong advocate for the cheap labor women brought to the police force (Garcia, 2003). Unfortunately, it took nearly four decades for women to branch out of the custodial or matron positions of the police workforce which made it almost impossible to ever see an increase in the number of women in law enforcement (Price and Gavin, 1981).

After all the hard work and effort women put forth to play a vital part of law enforcement paid off. In 1893, Marie Owens, a native of Chicago, Illinois, and a widow of a Chicago police officer, became an employee of the Chicago Police Department; she was the first woman recognized with a rank as a police officer and continued her duties for thirty years (Grennan, 2000). Owens’ roles and duties consisted of aiding police investigators with criminal cases that involved women and children (Grennan, 2000). Most police departments in the United States did not want to provide financial benefits to the widows of police officers, but the Chicago Police Department gave Owens much more than just a "pay-out", they gave her the very first job that played a key role in the progression of women in law enforcement (Grennan, 2000). This was not just your typical custodial job responsibilities; this was an actual profession that allowed women to assist in cases and help create a new chapter for women in law enforcement.

Portland, Oregon utilized the Chicago Police Department’s hiring practices, and employed Lola Baldwin in 1905 (Garcia, 2003). Baldwin’s duties consisted of managing a group of social workers for the Portland Police Department during the Lewis and Clark Exposition (Garcia, 2003). Baldwin became the first woman in the United States to be allotted as a sworn police officer; her successful role in law enforcement for Portland soon shed light on the safety concerns for the women in the city of Portland (Garcia, 2003). This ultimately led to the development of the Department of Public Safety for the Protection of Young Girls and Women and appointing Baldwin director of the program (Garcia, 2003).

During a period of increase in juvenile and female-related crime, the Los Angeles City Council and Police Department received a petition in 1910, from Alice Stebbins Wells, which called for an immediate increase for the need of female officers to manage them (Grennan, 2000). The Los Angeles Police Department agreed with Wells’ request, and hired her as the first female officer for their department to control the women and juveniles (Grennan, 2000). After becoming a vital part of the Los Angeles Police Department for several years, Wells embarked on a two-year seminar tour throughout the United States informing police departments and law enforcement agencies the benefits of employing female officer (Price and Gavin, 1981).

Wells served on the Los Angeles Police Department for several years before conducting a two-year tour through North America where she informed departments of the benefits in hiring female officers (Price & Gavin, 1981). The tour was an unmitigated success: throughout the country female officers became more prevalent – from sixteen cities in 1915 to thirty the following year (Garcia, 2003; Price & Gavin, 1981). It was at this time, in 1914, that the first female police chief in the United States – Dolly Spencer – was hired in Milford, Ohio (Grennan, 2000). Just five years after she became the first female police officer in the country, Alice Stebbins Wells was elected the first president of the International Association of Police Women in May, 1915 (Price & Gavin, 1981).

While women gained quite a bit of ground within policing during this decade, their acquiescence to certain tasks would go on to have far-reaching implications and affect women in the field for generations to come. In petitioning that the very nature of their sex would allow women to be better suited for handling female and juvenile cases, Wells introduced and supported the notion that women approach policing in a fundamentally different way than men, and this difference was enough to warrant their segregation (Lehtinen, 1976). The proliferation of women officers throughout the decade corresponded with the creation and rise of Women‟s Bureaus – a separate unit where women were tasked with the care of wayward adolescent

females and the minimization of other societal ills such as underage alcohol sales and the suppression of "dance hall evils" (Rabe-Hemp, 2009; Lehtinen, 1976).

Because of her background and outspokenness of the topic, Wells became an archetype for the idealized female officer for generations to come. That is to say, female officers hired during this, and future, decades largely came from social work backgrounds; these women were viewed as social workers with policing capabilities and were given tasks that were social work-oriented and seen as sex-appropriate (Franklin, 2005; Price & Gavin, 1981).

As America entered into „The War to End All Wars‟, women came into policing to fill the shoes of male officers as they would in a near mirroring of events that would occur a mere twenty years later (Price & Gavin, 1981). These new officers operated as auxiliary police and were tasked with war-related duties, such as ensuring prostitutes were not in or around military camps. They also served as general supervision within army camps (Price & Gavin, 1981). By the decade‟s end women were employed as officers in over two-hundred cities in the United States (Price & Gavin, 1981).

Baker, Jean H. (ed.) (2002). Votes for Women: The Struggle for Suffrage Revisited. Oxford University Press.

Flexner, Eleanor, Century of Struggle: The Woman's Rights Movement in the United States (1976)

Purvis, J., & Holton, S. (2000). Votes for Women. Routledge.

Langton, L. (2010). Women in Law Enforcement. Bureau of Justice System Statistics.

Garcia, V. (2003). "Difference" in the police department: Women, policing, and "doing gender". Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 19(3), 330-344.

Grennan, S. A. (2000). The past, present, and future of women in policing. In R. Muraskin (Ed.), It’s a Crime: Women and Justice (pp. 383-398). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Price, B. R., & Gavin, S. (1981). A century of women in policing. In D.O. Schultz (Ed.), Modern Police Administration (pp. 109-122). Houston, TX: Gulf Publishing Company.