This month is 75 years since the first women joined the police. In June 1941, 10 young women were trained in Wellington and then joined the police force. This was war time when there was a shortage of fit men. Also, Britain and Australia already had police women by this time. NZ Police advertised for single women and widows. There were of course a number of widows as NZ soldiers had been fighting in the war since 1939. Single women could only work until they got married. That’s how it was in those days.
Today nearly 20% of the NZ police force are women. (In Canada, it is 34%.) Seven women in NZ have a top job of Superintendent and 2 women are on the Police Executive. However, the police want 50% of the police force to be women. In 1965, they received equal pay and they do the same jobs as the men. One female police officer said that women are often better at communicating and this is an important skill, especially in difficult situations.
A ceremony to celebrate 75 years was held on Friday. A relay of police officers starting on June 24th from both the far north of NZ and the far south will finish in Wellington with a parade on August 1st. Relay runners will carry a torch and wear a special 75 years T shirt. The shirt has pictures of the 7 uniforms worn by police women since the 1940s. Relay runners will stop in towns and talk to people. This should encourage women to think about joining the police.
This website shows the T shirt.
Vocabulary
• police force (n) – all the police (like ‘army’)
• shortage (n) – not enough
• fit (adj) – strong and healthy
• widows (n) – women whose husband had died
• Police Executive (n) – they make decisions
• relay (n) – a runner runs one part of a course then gives a baton to another runner who continues the course