Women in Policing

Feminist Perspectives on Theory and Practice

Emma Cunningham

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780367710699
• eBook ISBN: 9781000453225
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Criminology
• Index: Social Sciences

Women in Policing provides an insight into women's role within policing, their emergence, and development, offering a theoretical underpinning to explore this role as well as incorporating two empirical studies, one which reassesses the lived experiences of female officers, and one based on FOI requests to examine police officer disciplinary offences in three police force areas.

The book begins by exploring some of the history of ideas in relation to ideas about women and their supposed nature. Cunningham shows how a variety of feminist ideas and critique are of vital importance in illuminating and critiquing the place of women within this field and provides a feminist lens with which to explore these themes critically. The book also examines the re-emergence of these ideas about women in current women and policing literature. Together, exploration of these sources using a feminist conceptual framework facilitates a new, rich analysis that is both reflective and reflexive, culminating in a novel snapshot of the place of women in policing in England. She argues that accepting both institutional racism and institutional misogyny are vital in approaching transformational change in policing practice. The book concludes with a discussion around how these findings can help with police confidence and legitimacy in the future.

A fundamental examination of the ideas underpinning how women's integration and continuation in policing has happened, where it is currently, and where it may go, Women in Policing will be of great interest to police practitioners and students as well as Criminology, Sociology, and Law and Policing scholars.

1 Wollstonecraft, the ‘nature of woman’, and women entering the police

This chapter will explore ideas about feminism using an historical and chronological approach, beginning with some of the founding ideas of feminist theory and a textual analysis. This approach will use Mary Wollstonecraft’s ideas and written words as a resource for challenging and examining patriarchal gender norms as they are unreflectively institutionalised in male-dominated professions such as policing. Wollstonecraft encountered various arguments about the difference of women to men which would limit their role to maternal and domestic issues, just as the first policewomen would have their role limited to caring for women and children by the use of similar difference arguments about their nature. Unfairness, inequality, and injustice were all critically explored by Wollstonecraft in relation to her century and women’s place within that, regardless of the abuse she would face by many male and female peers, just as policewomen have had to challenge and address these same ideas in order to extend their limited policing role. One example of this challenge from policewomen was their resistance to the female uniforms, which did not fit and made their job more difficult, even though they were heavily criticised for this by their male superiors, and they also variously challenged stereotypes about their natural strengths and weaknesses in relation to policing practice (Cunningham and Ramshaw, 2020).

Wollstonecraft had been a great critic and challenge to the patriarchal dimensions of British law, and added her ideas of a good way and a just society within her works. She knew first-hand that to be a companion or teacher was about the only legitimate way for a woman to earn a living, and she had done both, but she also noted the illegitimate ways women were forced to engage in for survival. In her Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787) she explained that

Few are the modes of earning a subsistence, and those very humiliating. Perhaps to be a humble companion to some rich old cousin, or what is still worse, to live with strangers […] Above the servants, yet considered by them as a spy, and ever reminded of her inferiority when in conversation with the superiors.

(Wollstonecraft 1787/1989: 25)

Wollstonecraft made explicit the idea of equality of the sexes to allow the chance for women to be involved in work and ideas beyond marriage and motherhood. She also provided a powerful critique of marriage and the problems associated with it. Marriage can lead to all kinds of abuse, according to Wollstonecraft, and she explains that asylums and magdalens are not useful remedies for prostitutes when ‘It is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world’ (Wollstonecraft, 1792/1994:143). Within such cases Wollstonecraft recognises the injustice for such women, where ‘prostitution becomes her only refuge, and the character is quickly depraved by circumstances over which the poor wretch has little power’ (Wollstonecraft, 1792/1994: 143).

During the eighteenth century in England, women were denied access to legal or political power since their whole legal status was subsumed either by their fathers or, upon marriage, by their husbands. Perkin (2002: 1) suggests that the subjection of women was enshrined in English law and custom for 900 years, but that the common law reflected rather than caused the subjection, which she suggests was rooted in the physical and political reality of that time. Women were excluded from the political, public sphere, from citizenship and the right to participate within the public realm. As Wollstonecraft herself explained, women did, however, have criminal status when they transgressed the law. Wollstonecraft was keenly aware of some of the issues which would be raised by working within male-dominated professions such as policing. She was aware of the predicament that women face in male-dominated careers just as she had herself faced fear, discrimination, and prejudice about women getting involved with politics and pamphlet writing. Tomalin explains that Horace Walpole had called Wollstonecraft a hyena in petticoats (Tomalin, 1992: 142), which can be contrasted with names levelled at policewomen as ‘split arses’ or ‘a dull tart’ centuries later (Cunningham and Ramshaw, 2020). Wollstonecraft was very aware of the inequalities for women such as primogeniture and the reality within the eighteenth century that

Anatomy determined one’s destiny, and men were designed to be on top […] High public office, the professions, the universities and the Church were closed to women […] they were as far as possible to depend on men.

(Ferguson, 1992: 22)

Her rebuttal of her contemporary male thinkers’ versions of the ‘nature of woman’ will be insightful in illustrating how different and radical her stance was, as well as illustrating how these notions of the nature of woman have prevailed within the policing profession today. The primary source historical texts of Wollstonecraft and her peers alongside contemporary criminological studies will be used to explore early ideas about what we may now term feminist principles from the eighteenth century, to investigate their use in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and in the specific field of women in policing using a feminist informed discourse analysis. Works by Alison Woodeson (1993), by Louise A. Jackson (2006), and by Joan W. Scott (1988) regarding issues of difference and sameness for feminists will be invaluable resources to discuss the historical integration of women into policing in England and Wales, along with exploring the use of prejudicial ideas about their ‘nature’. Later we will also examine the idea that policing has been built around an ideal male officer and that women cannot therefore fit this model as well as men can, Silvestri explained this using the example of the different experiences of time for policemen and policewomen (Silvestri, 2017; 2018).

Wollstonecraft (1759–1797)

In 2021 it is now 262 years since the birth of Mary Wollstonecraft, whose ideas informed what we would now consider feminism, ideas such as education for all, equal human rights, and citizenship. Hunt-Botting and Carey (2004) use the term ‘proto-feminist philosophy’ in relation to Wollstonecraft, since it is problematic to label her or her philosophy ‘feminist’ as the word and movement did not exist at this time (Hunt-Botting and Carey, 2004: 708). While we may not be able to label Wollstonecraft feminist, Gunther-Canada (2001) suggests

Mary Wollstonecraft is often considered the mother of modern feminism because she was the first to form a model of citizenship in which the political subjectivity of the woman herself was the basis of her rights and duties as a citizen.

(Gunther-Canada, 2001: 122)

Bryson suggests that Wollstonecraft established the principles which led to later campaigns for universal suffrage and eventually to the demand for equal participation with men in the worlds of politics and paid employment (Bryson, 1992: 23). Bee Rowlatt, activist, writer, and journalist, has written about Wollstonecraft in her play An Amazon Stept Out (2019) as well as following her journey in her award-winning book In Search of Mary: The Mother of All Journeys (2016), and has campaigned and fought for a statue to commemorate Wollstonecraft’s life and works in London. Bee suggests that Wollstonecraft is the foremother of modern feminism (Maryonthegreen, 2020). While the sculpture of the spirit of Wollstonecraft by artist Maggi Hambling CBE was initially seen as an affront by some (Thorpe, 2020), it is arguably fitting that this remarkable and fabulous celebration of the spirit of Wollstonecraft, who was also seen as a contentious character in her own time and for centuries later, was undertaken by a pioneer within the art world now who still subverts expectations. The statue was welcomed and unveiled in an online celebration, due to the continued COVID-19 pandemic, on November 10, 2020 (www.maryonthegreen.org/latestnews.shtml, 2020), and I cannot wait to visit it once restrictions ease.

When considering the question of what Wollstonecraft’s ideas can add to this study, it is important to highlight what her works do and how they are resonant for exploring the place of women in general in society and in particular in policing. Wollstonecraft was writing in the eighteenth century in England and she attempts to trace women and the construction of gender throughout the history of Western political thought. This can be viewed as a very early concern about gender in a way which has been continued much more recently by many feminist theorists including Offen (2000), Green (1995), and Akkerman and Stuurman (1998). In contrast, and to illustrate her originality, Wollstonecraft’s peers do not provide this element to their examination of gender. Secondly, Wollstonecraft attempts within her work to change attitudes from a conception either of women as weak, emotional, and childlike, or as devious and sexually powerful, therefore needing containment. She critiques the effects of the socialisation of women, which maintains this situation in her society, seeing it as harmful to men and women. Thirdly, according to Wollstonecraft, women do not know what their true nature is either, but she argues when they are made aware of this and do recognise it, things will change. In this way she is one of a few authors who saw significant potential in women. Fourthly, Wollstonecraft argues for practical policy changes to allow women education and civil status to follow the attitudinal changes that she had argued for. Finally, and again like a few of her contemporary thinkers, Wollstonecraft recognises that women have the capacity and right of citizenship and further opportunities associated with this. Marie-Jean Caritat Condorcet (in McLean and Hewitt, 1994) and De Gouges (in Levy, Applewhite, and Johnson, 1980) in France would be exceptions to this idea rather than the rule. It is quite striking to see the arguments about the nature of woman from Wollstonecraft’s era in the eighteenth century, yet that still remain in contemporary discussions about policewomen. Having a background in both Wollstonecraft and policing allows me this critical interpretation or perspective about women and policing.

When researching the works of historical figures like Wollstonecraft using their primary sources, it is important to make the research methods clear to allow the reader of your research to make some judgement about you and your work. Millen (1997), Lather (1988), McRobbie (1982), and Harding (1987; 1991) have provided huge insight into opening up the researcher’s position to the reader of the research. An explicit and brief explanation of the researcher’s position allows for questions, criticism, and acceptance of this position and the effects of this upon the research itself. The suggestion of an attempt at objectivity, together with the researcher’s subjectivity and contextual understanding from feminist methodologies, also avoids the postmodern claim of the uniqueness of research, which lacks reproducibility, or application to other situations.

In order to address the need for a disclosure of some subjectivity of the researcher, I can explain that I wrote my PhD dissertation on Wollstonecraft’s works and her contemporaries, and that my research is feminist and is to some extent informed by my own experiences. However, this does not mean the research will be purely subjective but that it will apply a feminist lens to allow a critical exploration of the place of women in the male organisation of policing which keeps women disadvantaged within it. This research also notes problems that a hypermasculine police culture will have on male as well as female officers. This study comes from a feminist perspective in recognising and illustrating the disadvantage that women face within this and other areas of life, and seeks to challenge this position. bell hooks (2000) discusses her earlier definition of feminism to explain that both men and women will benefit from it: ‘Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression’ (hooks, 2000: viii). She explains that men who benefit the most from this system will be released through feminism from the ‘bondage of patriarchy’ (hooks, 2000: ix) and that her book is for them as well as women. This is similar to arguments put forward by Wollstonecraft about everyone benefiting from ending the oppression of women, and society becoming fairer and more ethical, and it can be argued that this book is also for all of the police family without distinction of sex, ethnicity, sexuality, disability, or rank, to consider and take it into account in their negotiation of their own policing role and style, as well as for academia. Sapiro (1992: 258–9) suggests that feminism involves:

• An opposition to gender hierarchy
• A recognition that such a hierarchy exists
• Women’s position as socially constructed
• A challenge to end this

Wollstonecraft’s works certainly fit within this definition of feminism as do her equality and human rights arguments. In terms of feminist epistemology, Wollstonecraft was also one of a very limited number of women to include herself as a ‘knower’ alongside her male contemporaries. This study, therefore, provides comparative studies of Wollstonecraft’s work with her peers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) and Edmund Burke (1729–1797). Wollstonecraft, by publishing her works, was one of a limited number of women who declared herself a knower within the male-dominated field of political philosophy. She and her work were met with hostility as women were told by male authorities that they would be corrupted by reading this work. The Reverend Richard Polwhele considered Wollstonecraft’s death in childbirth as richly deserved, as he heard of her first child born out of wedlock, and he urged others not to read her corrupting works (Rogers, 1982: 218). The importance of Wollstonecraft in relation to feminist epistemology can be further illustrated by the knowledge that A Vindication was published in Spain and was made to look as though it had been written...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsement
• Half Title
• Series Information
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: Women in policing: Their sameness and difference
• 1 Wollstonecraft, the ‘nature of woman’, and women entering the police
• 2 Re-emerging arguments about the nature of woman, a re-examination of twenty-three policewomen data and a review of policing in Australia
• 3 Feminist use of Freedom of Information requests (FOI)
• 4 Conclusions and summary
• Bibliography
• Index