Women in policing in the United Kingdom

Women began working as police officers in the United Kingdom as early as December 1915 amidst the First World War.

Until 1999, women in the police had their rank title prefixed with the word "Woman", or the letter W in abbreviations (e.g. "WPC" for Constable); this construction is still sometimes used in the press and by individuals.

They were soon joined by three other women campaigners, and around 1911 started unofficial street patrols from an office in Bristol "to maintain public morality and decency".

[8] Florence Mildred White left her teaching post at the Godolphin School in 1914 to live and work in the newly created Bath office for women police, where Peto had become the Assistant Patrols Organizer).

The war deprived the country of able-bodied young men and was a major impetus for the arrival of the first female officers, as well as many comparable developments in other professions.

These included: In August 1915, Edith Smith became the first British woman to be appointed a police officer with full powers of arrest.

About two of the six pages of his annual report concerned the employment of women in professional police work, including the possibility of them having the powers of arrest.

[17] The chief constable of Wolverhampton wrote an article in Police Review and Parade Ground Gossip in which he listed a range of duties women could undertake within the Force.

[18] On 16 November 1921, the Metropolitan Commissioner of Police, Sir Nevil Macready, who was considered to be setting the standard throughout England, issued an order[8] that with the possibility of women being appointed to the Police Service, these would reflect current requirements for male officers; "a minimum height would be established, though at 5 feet 4 inches this was considerably lower than that for men."

Once police forces had recruited a small number of women, they tended to organise them into separate units.

Ostensibly a result of budget cuts, these happened at a time when the wartime women's rights movements were petering out and in some cases being undone.

[21] Two Inspectors of Constabulary gave evidence as did several senior people in the service, including two attested sergeants from provincial forces, Florence Mildred White and Ethel Gale from Gloucestershire.

In her 14-year tenure in charge of its A4 (Women Police) division, their numbers were increased from under 60 to over 200, and it employed half the policewomen in the United Kingdom.