What It Was Really Like to Be a Policewoman in the 1950s

In the nineteen fifties, a woman could carry a badge, a loaded revolver, and twenty years of service, and still be barred from driving the squad car, wearing a uniform, or earning a single promotion. This is what it was really like to be a policewoman in that era: the badge built smaller than the men's, the gun zipped into a handbag beside a tube of lipstick, the custody work everyone needed and no one credited. And it is the story of the women who did the job anyway, until one of them took her city to court and forced the door open for everyone who came after. If there was a woman in your own family who did a job she was never given the title for, leave her name in the comments. I want to read every one. Sources & further reading NYC Department of Records & Information Services, "Policewomen" (For the Record): policewomen were issued a black shoulder bag holding their gun along with a red lipstick and powder compact, and Shpritzer argued that denying policewomen the chance to become sergeants was discriminatory, archaic and illegal, carried it to the New York State Court of Appeals, and won in June 1963 — https://www.archives.nyc/blog/2023/3/... NYC Department of Records & Information ServicesTaylor & Francis Online History of the New York City Police Department (Wikipedia): the first "Policewoman" civil service exam was given in 1938 with about 5,000 women taking it and 300 passing; a college degree was required of female officers beginning in 1942; men and women began training together at the academy in 1958; and after Shpritzer's 1961 suit, 126 policewomen took the sergeant's exam for the first time in 1964 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History... Molly Brown House Museum U.S. SEC, "Women in the NYPD" keynote: the bag contained a holster for the revolver and a makeup kit with red lipstick, and LaGuardia famously said to use the gun as you would your lipstick and not overdo either one; by 1934 women were allowed pistol practice with male officers — https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/speeches... NYC Department of Records & Information Services Cleveland Police Museum, "First Uniforms for Cleveland Policewomen, 1957": Women's Bureau members wore civilian clothing, could not drive zone cars, and were not issued weapons; their badges and wreaths were smaller than the men's and their badge numbers were in the 3000s; uniforms came for the first time in 1957 — https://www.clevelandpolicemuseum.org... Cuny Encyclopedia of Cleveland History (Case Western Reserve): the Women's Bureau was organized in 1924 after the CPD had employed women as jail matrons since 1893, with duties including guarding women prisoners and witnesses and assisting in cases involving women or children — https://case.edu/ech/articles/w/women... SciSpace National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund: in 1968 Indianapolis classmates Elizabeth Coffal Robinson and Betty Blankenship became the first women assigned to patrol together in the country, in Car 47, still required to store their handguns in their purses — https://nleomf.org/celebrating-womens... Cleveland Police Museum Lloyd Sealy Library, John Jay College: Lois Higgins served as IAWP president from 1956 to 1964 in connection with her career at the Chicago Police Department, where she headed the Crime Prevention Bureau in Chicago during the 1950s and 1960s — https://lib.jjay.cuny.edu/nypd/Police... Welcome2TheBronxTruenorthcountrycomics