Dorothy Moses Schulz

Associate Professor of Law, Police Science, and Criminal Justice Administration

John Jay College of Criminal Justice
dschulz@jjay.cuny.edu

Word count: 1000

The International Association of Women Police (IAWP) was formed in 1956 as a continuation of the International Association of Policewomen (IAP), which was founded in 1915 and discontinued in 1932.  Membership is open to all sworn law enforcement officers–male and female–around the world; non-sworn officers and those in related fields are eligible for associate membership.  Primarily an organization of women law enforcement professionals from almost 50 countries worldwide, approximately five percent of the IAWP’s members are men.  As of mid-2002, membership was approximately 2,500, with an additional 4,000 officers in affiliated chapters around the world.  The association sponsors an annual training conference, usually in the fall, and publishes a quarterly magazine entitled Women Police. 

The IAWP traces its origins to the IAP, founded in 1915 by Alice Stebbins Wells, who in 1910 was given the title “policewoman” by the City of Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).  Although not actually the first policewoman in the U.S., she is generally considered to be the first person to have been officially designated with that rank.

Stebbins Wells, a graduate theology student and social worker who campaigned actively for her position with the LAPD, pioneered preventive protection principles for youth.  On May 18, 1915, while attending a meeting of the National Conference of Charities and Correction (NCCC), Stebbins Wells and a small number of policewomen formed the IAP.  The NCCC (later the National Conference of Social Work, NCSW) was a group through which women prison reformers and social service professionals had increased their influence on social policy.  Although members of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) in 1922 passed a resolution supporting policewomen, the social work background of most of the policewomen made the NCCC a more appropriate fit for their outlook and concerns than the IACP.  Until the IAP disbanded in 1932, it met each year as an adjunct of the NCCC (later NCSW) meetings, not with the IACP.  While the IAP is often viewed as a casualty of the Great Depression, the more direct cause of its demise was the death of Lt. Mina Van Winkle, the director of the Washington, DC, Police Department’s women’s bureau.  Van Winkle, who in 1920 succeeded Stebbins Wells as president of the IAP, had also provided financial support to the group from personal and family resources.

In 1956, at a meeting of the Women Peace Officers of California (WPOAC), in San Diego, the remnants of the IAP became the present-day IAWP when the organization was reestablished by Dr. Lois Lundell Higgins.  A thirty-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department, Higgins held the presidency for eight years and served an additional twelve years as executive director.  The IAWP at this time, through its constitution and its activities, promoted separate women’s bureaus.  Many women felt this was their own opportunity for advancement since, before 1968, these women were never on uniformed patrol.  

Reflecting the changing role of women in policing, in 1972 the IAWP deleted from its constitution the clause encouraging the establishment of women’s bureaus in police departments and in 1976 extended voting membership to men in law enforcement.  

Somewhat earlier (in 1963) annual conferences had replaced biennial meetings and in 1978 the present five-day training format was instituted.  Training topics today, often provided by expert practitioners, cover all facets of police activity.  The conferences, which attract upwards of 750 people, also serve as a forum for reporting on developments in law enforcement and for publicizing women’s advancement and accomplishments in policing.  Although historically conferences were held only in the U.S. or Canada, recent sites reflect the increasingly international outlook of the association and its success in enrolling non-North American members.  International participation in the conferences increased substantially in 1987, in part due to the venue of New York City and in part due to participation by a number of IAWP members at other international women’s police gatherings.  Since then, the 1996 meeting was held in Birmingham, England, (in conjunction with the European Network of Policewomen) and the 2002 conference was in Canberra, Australia (in conjunction with the Australasian Council of Women & Policing).   

In 1979 the Woman Officer of the Year Award was instituted.  This award has traditionally gone to a woman who exhibits not only bravery and valor, but who is involved with community projects and who exemplifies the ideas of policing as a multi-faceted public service.  To be eligible for the award, a candidate must be recommended by her chief.  Since the late 1980s the IAWP has used money from a benefactor to support an International Officer Scholarship for a woman from a country other than the U.S. or Canada. The recipient of the award traditionally attends the annual conference and speaks about police practices in her country.  Many have retained their ties with the organization and provided a link with new members in countries that were previously unrepresented.  In 1998 the IAWP developed an “Adopt a Member Program” which encourages members to sponsor (or adopt) a woman from a country where police salaries are low and who would be unlikely to join if she had to pay the annual membership fee on her own.  Sponsors are urged to overcome language and cultural barriers by corresponding with their adoptees.

In recent years, as women’s roles in policing have expanded, the IAWP has also become involved in such issues as state (U.S.) and provincial (Canadian) car licensing procedures, U.S. gun control, transport of firearms across state lines, missing children, and serial murder programs.  The IAWP also underwrites and staffs an informational booth at the annual IACP conferences and has worked closely with the National Law Enforcement Officers Police Memorial to assure that women are represented on the memorial itself and at annual commemoration ceremonies in Washington, DC, each May.

Dorothy Moses Schulz

Schulz, Dorothy Moses.  (1995)  From Social Worker to Crimefighter: Women in United States Municipal Police.  Westport, CT: Praeger.

Schulz, Dorothy Moses.  (1998) Bridging Boundaries: United States Policewomen’s Efforts To Form an International Network, International Journal of Police Science and Management 1, no. 1, pp. 70-80.

http://www.iawp/org/history/pastpresent/htm.  (Viewed on 10/12/02)