Formal Structures Needed for Gender Balance
The goal must be a police force that reflects the community's entire population. But in order to increase the numbers of women in the Police Department across all police functions, it will be necessary to have formal plans and administrative structures for mandated change and gender balance.

Experts emphasize the need to create a "formal administrative structure" established specifically to achieve social equity for women in policing. Susan Martin, in Women on the Move, recommends police departments:

• concentrate voluntary affirmative action efforts on enlarging the pool of women recruits
• alter promotional standards to eliminate criteria that are irrelevant to supervisory ability or potential
• adopt stringent policies for dealing with sexual harassment
• alter work conditions to increase the number of women in recruitment training and assignments
• periodically monitor departments to ensure that women are not tracked into clerical (or "female") assignments.

Michael Hennessey, the Sheriff of San Francisco, writes: "the only way we can overcome the mistakes of the past is by implementing pro-active policies today." He concludes: "It is not enough to announce a commitment to equal opportunity we must reach out and bring these opportunities directly to those who have been traditionally under-represented" (14).

The Fund for the Feminist Majority is a national American organization specializing in research on the impacts of, and public policy responses to, the under-representation of women in decision-making positions and positions of authority in all sectors of society.

1. Patricia W. Lunnenborg, Women Police Officers - Current Career Profiles, Springfield. IL: Charles C. Thomas, 1989, p.110.
2. "The Impact of Fanchon Blake v. City of Los Angeles," Claremont Graduate School Study, July 1990, p.108.
3. Sean Grennan, "Who is More Violent: The Male or Female Police Officer," Article submitted to Glamour Magazine for publication, April 1991.
4. Sean Grennan, "Findings on the Role of Officer Gender in Violent Encounters with Citizens," Journal of Police Science and Administration 15:1, 1987,84.
5. Carol Ann Martin, "Women Police and Stress: Remarks," The Police Chief, March 1983, 108.
6. Joseph Balkin, "Why Policemen Don't Like Policewomen," Journal of Police Science and Administration, 16, p.34.
7. Balkin, p.35.
8. Jalna Hanmer et al. Women, Policing and Male Violence: International Perspectives. Routledge: New York, 1989, pages 65 and 52, respectively. (See review in this issue.)
9. "Testimony Before the House Select Committee on Children, Youth and Familles," Dean Kilpatrick, Ph.D., 1990.
10. "Police Were Wrong in Rapes, Chief Says," Los Angeles Times, 2/4/1992.
11. Robert J. Homant and Daniel B. Kennedy, "Police Perceptions of Spouse Abuse: A Comparison of Male and Female Officers," Journal of Criminal Justice, 13: 29-47.
12. Homant and Kennedy, p. 42.
13. Daniel Saunders and Patricia Sire, "Attitudes About Woman Abuse Among Police Officers, Victims, and Victim Advocates," Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 1, 1986: 25-42.
14. Michael Hennessey, Law Enforcement News, 2/28/1989, 8-9.