20 Things Police Departments Did to 1950s Policewomen That Are Illegal Today

🔔Subscribe to Chloe on the Clock for the documented record of what women workers endured, one countdown at a time.    / @chloeontheclock   In the 1950s, a woman could be sworn in as a police officer, carry a gun, and hold a college degree the men beside her never needed, and still be barred from the one thing that defined the job: the beat. This is the documented record of what American police departments did to their policewomen. Hired onto a separate civil service list, paid less, capped by quota, and steered into matron duty, juvenile cases, and vice decoy work, she was police in name and walled out of policing in fact. Her badge was made smaller. Her uniform came with a girdle. Her service revolver rode in her handbag, behind the lipstick. And when Felicia Shpritzer, after nearly twenty years on the force, tried to sit for the sergeant's exam, she was told women lacked the strength for the rank, and had to win the right in court. Every case here is sourced to department records, civil service files, and court decisions. Nothing is invented. Counting down from 20 to 1. Did your mother or grandmother wear a badge the world was told not to take seriously? Tell us what she was hired to do, and what they never let her do. 📝 Link to sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1E...