Men Promoted First, They Say
by Jenn Abelson, The Boston Globe
FRAMINGHAM, Mass. -- Two female State Police lieutenants who say they were denied promised promotions have filed complaints with the state’s discrimination agency, accusing the police department of impeding women from moving up the ranks.
The promotion process is “neither legally nor professionally defensible,” Paula Loud, a detective lieutenant, and Rosemarie Murphy, a lieutenant, said in their complaints, which contend the State Police had revoked promotions, interfered with examination preparation, and failed to correct the underrepresentation of women on the force.
“By fighting for women’s rights, I’m trying to make it a better job for everyone else coming on,” said Murphy, who also filed a civil lawsuit in April in Suffolk Superior Court. “It’s a good job. It’s an important job.”
Officials at the State Police headquarters in Framingham declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
In her complaint filed with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, Murphy said she was studying about 45 hours a week for a Captain’s Promotional Examination last November when she received several calls from State Police officials congratulating her on a promotion. Acting Colonel Glenn Anderson even instructed her to “throw away the study material” for the Nov. 10 exam, she said in the complaint, but five days later, Major Stephen Leary told Murphy the promotion was “on hold” and to return to her studying.
Leary declined to discuss the complaints, and Anderson, who has retired, could not be reached for comment.
Loud, who also would not comment, said in her complaint that she was falsely notified of a promotion to captain last October. Officials told her again, in February, that she had been promoted, but several days later Loud was informed the promotion was “off,” the complaint said.
According to an affidavit included in the civil suit, Anderson said that as of Oct. 26, 2001, “a proposal for eight new captain positions had been approved by the Commonwealth’s Human Resources Division. If the eight new positions had been created, (Murphy) would have been the eighth lieutenant promoted.” But the request for the new positions was denied on Oct. 30 by Acting Governor Jane Swift, who “decided that the creation of eight additional captain positions was not appropriate,” he said in the affidavit.
Although Anderson said Murphy was to be among the eight promoted to captain, eight men have since moved up.
Four men who ranked higher than Loud and Murphy on last fall’s promotion list filled captain posts vacated by retirees in the ensuing months, the complaint said. The two women contend that four positions still were available, and that the department intentionally waited until a new promotion list was issued, in which the first 12 candidates were male. On the older list, there were two females - Loud and Murphy - among the first four candidates. Since the new promotion list was issued in March, four more men have been promoted to captain.
In their complaints, the women accuse the State Police of failing to set goals to alleviate the under utilization of women.
Currently, one of the 25 members of the command staff is female, and there is one woman among the 33 captains, according to Lieutenant Paul Maloney, a spokesman for the State Police.
There has been no additional promotion of women to the command staff or to the rank of captain since the department published its July 1, 2000, to June 30, 2002, Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Plan. In that report, the State Police said, “We recognize that current entry and promotional processes established by law impede the Department’s ability to correct our (Equal Employment Opportunity) posture.”
Elizabeth Forman, assistant to the chairwoman of the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, said she could not discuss the complaints filed by Loud and Murphy, citing confidentiality, except to say that the cases are active. Forman said the commission did not know how many complaints, active or inactive, involved female officers.
Penny Harrington, founder of the National Center for Women and Policing and the former chief of the Portland, Ore., police department, questioned the State Police commitment to advancing women, especially because the department hedged when the two women were within promoting range.
Harrington, who served as the first female chief of a major city police department, now works as an expert witness on employment discrimination.
At a conference earlier this month, nearly 375 women from 63 law enforcement agencies across the state discussed the challenges and triumphs in their respective fields. Bypassed promotions and the perception of unattainable management posts were among the topics addressed, said Kimberly Jo O’Hara, who organized the event and is an assistant superintendent of the Essex County Sheriff’s Department.
“We’re continuing to break the glass ceiling,” O’Hara said, “but we’ve got a long way to go.”
According to a 2001 survey conducted by the National Center for Women in Policing, women are concentrated in the lowest tier of sworn law enforcement positions, with women holding only 7.3 percent of top command positions within large police agencies.
“It’s not that women are stupid. It’s not that women are incompetent,” Harrington said. “It’s that no one wants them there.”