3 Women in early twentieth-century policing

From their foundations in modern form in the early/mid-nineteenth century, British police forces were male-dominated institutions. This was in part because, before the twentieth century, women had far fewer legal rights than men. They were unable to vote, to hold a bank account in their own name, to easily divorce or to follow a vocational career. Women did have a role in pre-twentieth century policing, but only on a voluntary basis – as wives married to police officers – or as police ‘matrons’.

Figure 3: PC John Dilley of Hertfordshire Constabulary with his wife and children outside their police house, c.1909-11 [Description: A black and white photograph showing PC John Dilley of Hertfordshire Constabulary in his police uniform standing at a white front gate of a small rural police house. He holds the hand of a small child and behind him stands his wife who is holding a baby. There is a notice board in the front garden.] Source: https://www.hertspastpolicing.org.uk/content/police-history/police/tewin-police-house

The work of the police wife was rarely publicly acknowledged but, particularly in rural areas, police constables often lived in police houses and wives were expected to answer enquiries and escort female victims or arrestees. If a police constable intended to marry, his wife and her family were vetted for suitability and, as late as the 1930s, police wives were still expected to give up any form of paid employment.

Figure 4: A police ‘matron’ sits with officers in the kitchen of a Birmingham police station (c.1919) [Description: A black and white photograph showing 3 uniformed officers and one possible plain clothed officer sitting at a large table in a police station kitchen. A middle-aged woman with grey hair in a bun is also sitting at the table and pouring them tea. The table is set with a cloth, a bread board with bread, sugar and various other foods. There is a large range behind them and the walls are decorated with shackles and leg irons.] [Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_policing_in_the_United_Kingdom

From the 1880s the Metropolitan Police took on 14 paid female employees as police ‘matrons’. This role formalised the duties traditionally undertaken on an informal, volunteer basis by the wives of policemen. Police matrons, who were not police officers (i.e. they had no formal powers of arrest), assisted with the supervision and searching of female and child offenders, and the escort of female detainees. By the early twentieth century other forces also employed matrons, but campaigners started to argue for the creation of a women’s police service, with full powers, analogous to the existing male forces.

Initially such campaigns had little success, but the outbreak of war provided an impetus for female emancipation. A group called the Women Police Volunteers (WPV) was formed in 1914. Drawing on concerns that female refugees from Belgium were being recruited into prostitution at train stations, they gained approval from the Metropolitan Police Commissioner for uniformed members to patrol on a voluntary and unofficial basis. While the WPV did not have any official police powers, they began patrolling areas where prostitutes worked, helping rescue women and children from ‘vice’, and visiting munitions factories which employed large numbers of women.

The development of the WPV and the entry of women into formal policing was far from smooth, however, as the next section will show.