NO MARRIED POLICEWOMEN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 176, 6 November 1942, Page 8

NO MARRIED POLICEWOMEN

"Incompatible with Cooking" Says the Commissioner X 7 HEN the first women police \ were appointed a year or more ago, I went to interview the Commiksioner, The Commissioner, in Chicago parlance, wasn’t talking. So after that I was reduced ‘to listening to conversations. on street corners and in tramcars, hoping that one day a policewoman would betray her identity in her conversation and thereby expose herself to the inconvenience of an interview. But I suspect that selfrevelation is a process not officially encouraged in policewomen; at all events I was completely unsuccessful. After a year of abortive listening I was back where I started, and once more I mounted the steps to the office of the Police Commissioner. : Some Welfare Work This time the Commissioner was more communicative. I sat in a comfortable chair beside his expansive desk, regarded with anything from lukewarm approval to active dislike by the portraits of past Commissioners hanging on the wall, with lofty disdain by the First Police Matron. But I was indifferent to her contempt, for at long last I was learning something about policewomen. re "What work are they doing?" I asked the Commissioner. "All sorts. They patrol parks and railway stations, keep an eye out for women soliciting and so on. They wander round shops and take note of any shoplifting. We use them, too, on maintenance cases. When there is need to contact the woman concerned the policewoman does it." "Do they do any welfare work?" "Yes. Some of their work is complementary to the work of the ‘Child Welfare Department." "You’re not thinking of putting them into uniform then?" "No, it would not be helpful in the work they are doing at present." Twelve More Appointed The Commissioner went on to speak in glowing terms of the ten policewomen already trained. Their appointment has been in the nature of an experiment, but they had definitely proved their worth. So much so that now another twelve had been appointed, and were to start their training on the following day. "How long is their training?" "Three months. They spend most of it learning as much as possible about the law they are going to administer. And we find time to give a fair amount of physical instruction. Of course they have to be 100 per cent. fit before they begin on practical work." "And do your girls like their jobs?" I asked. ‘ "They all seem to. None of them has left yet. Why should they? They have interesting work and good pay-£5/15/-a week. They’re all right." "What if they get married?" "I would ‘not stop them. There’s no contract or anything of the kind. No, if

any of our girls wanted to better herself by marrying I wouldn’t stand in her way." Marry And Resign Privately I considered it a little antifeminist of the Commissioner to maintain that giving up a £5/15/- job to marry was necessarily bettering oneself. But perhaps the average policewoman was efficient enough to manage both job and husband? ‘ "No," said the Commissioner. "When they marry they have to resign. You see we might want them for some job or other when they’d have to be home, cooking their husbands’ dinner. That would not be much use to us, would it?" "In the circumstances couldn’t the husband cook his own dinner?" we asked, "Some men," commented ‘the Commissioner severely, "are so helpless." I agreed, feeling rather depressed at the thought of the unfortunate policewoman who in spite of careful selection. and training must in response to a mere biological urge descend from her pedestal and her £5/15/- a week to the commonplaces of Kinder, Kuche, und Kirche, Wouldn’t it be better to open a special home science school for the husbands of policewomen? Replacement Question "And then ‘there’s the question of husbands overseas or in the forces," I persisted. "In that case," said the Commissioner, "I think we could come to some arrangement. But so far the question of married policewomen has not arisen, and I am hoping it won’t be just yor Though it’s quite likely to." Sighing deeply he coasted in a pigeonhole of his desk and drew forth a candid camera snap of two young women-very nice-looking young women, one in a smart grey tailored costume, the other wearing a well-cut coat and a fur slung nonchalantly over one shoulder. "Yes," I pointed out somewhat uncharitably, "if they’re all as good-looking as that your staffing problem will soon be acute." "T’ll just have to select another batch," said the Commissioner philosophically,

and brightened somewhat:

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