Editor’s note: This feature is part of Police1’s eBook, “Elevating women in law enforcement: Strategies for professional growth and career development.” Download the eBook here.
In 1891, Marie Owens became the first known appointed female police officer in the United States. Holding the rank of detective sergeant, Owens was hired by the Chicago Police Department to enforce child labor and welfare laws. As a widowed mother of five, Owens was dedicated to enforcing these laws at a time when children as young as seven were employed in sweatshop factories across the city.
Although “community policing” is a relatively recent term, Owens is celebrated in Chicago for epitomizing it. With her law enforcement background and previous experience as a factory inspector for the city health department, she made it her mission to establish schools in department stores for young workers and advocated for shorter workdays in compliance with existing laws. Owens retired in 1923 after a 32-year career.
Her pioneering work paved the way for other female police officers. Following her example, the Portland (Oregon) Police Department hired Lola Greene Baldwin in 1908 and the Los Angeles Police Department appointed Alice Stebbins Wells in 1910.
More than a century later, women now fill the ranks of law enforcement at all levels, reflecting profound changes in the profession since Owens first donned her police star.
However, women still only account for approximately 12% of law enforcement officers in the United States as of 2024. While this figure is higher than when Owens, Baldwin and Wells first joined law enforcement, it underscores a significant imbalance within departments nationwide, despite growing recognition of the importance of diversity and gender representation in policing.
As a result, the 30x30 Initiative was created to increase the representation of women in police recruit classes to 30% by 2030.
For three present-day female police officers, their journey into law enforcement may not have involved breaking new ground as the first-ever female police officers, but they still joined the ranks as part of a relatively small minority of women within their departments.
Becoming inspired to join law enforcement
At 21 years old, Janay Gasparini was working at a domestic violence shelter when she witnessed a compassionate moment between a police officer and a distressed young girl.
“I walked by the room where they had this young girl, the sunlight was streaming through the window — illuminating this police officer who was helping this little girl. It stopped me dead in my tracks. I immediately thought to myself, ‘That’s what I want to do.’ The next thing I know, I was in the police academy,” Gasparini recalled.
At the time, there was one other female recruit at the academy with Gasparini, but it was a female officer from Kingston (New York) Police Department who made a long-lasting impact on Gasparini.
“Tiffany Baney was the first female officer I ever saw or interacted with,” Gasparini said. “She would walk in and just suck all the air out of the room. Her example as a female instructor meant a lot to me, especially because we don’t have a lot of those where I come from.”
Gasparini graduated from the academy as “top cop” — the first female top cop in her county — and was hired with the town of New Paltz (New York) Police Department in 2006. She later served as a police instructor, field training officer and crime scene technician.
“Policing needs people who can be authentic, genuine and excellent communicators. I think that’s huge for female officers to demonstrate. A lot of women are very skilled at it.”
“I started getting into the training and education side of things and was lucky to be sent to instructor development school,” Gasparini said. “Fast-forward, I was offered a position to work full-time leading the criminal justice and security programs at a local community college. It was a hard decision, but I switched my life around.”
Gasparini transitioned from working full-time to part-time at the police department and went full-steam ahead as an educator, now working as an assistant professor of criminal justice at the State University of New York – Ulster and later earning her doctorate in criminal justice.
“Last summer, I got my dream job. I now work for the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services. I get to research, write curriculum, do all sorts of things in the training realm, which is a dream come true,” she said.
Her dream job, Gasparini said, was illuminated after attending a female officer survival school.
“It was wall-to-wall women, all ages, all backgrounds, all shapes and sizes, all experience levels, all kinds of police departments,” she said. “I was just blown away. It was my first time realizing, ‘Wow, I can do this.’”
Setting yourself apart
The mentorship and comradery at the survival school, Gasparini said, was second to none.
“I’ve stood on the shoulders of giants,” Gasparini said. “Now I want other female officers to as well. I want them to keep getting out there and doing all the great work … and just make the positive changes we’re seeing around us.”
Recruiting more female officers, she says, can be done by selling policing as a people profession: “There’s something to be said about a woman’s intuition and emotional intelligence. No matter what direction we take at this crossroads in American policing, it’s still a people profession at the end of the day. I think that can sell it for women.”
Women, she said, are also proven to be highly proficient communicators — an essential law enforcement skill. “Policing needs people who can be authentic, genuine and excellent communicators. I think that’s huge for female officers to demonstrate. A lot of women are very skilled at it.”
By maintaining a positive attitude and embracing unique skills, Gasparini explains in the video below how female officers can excel throughout their careers.
Gasparini’s key advice for women aspiring to become officers is to learn how to set themselves apart. For Gasparini, she achieved this by maintaining a calm, go-getter attitude — even when her supervisors attempted to diminish her presence by assigning her less desirable roles within the department.
“If you can maintain a positive attitude, I think it shocks people. They just don’t even know what to do with it. On my first day at the academy, I got in trouble because I was a little bit nervous, so I started smiling. And the instructors were like, ‘OK, smiley. We’re going to wipe that off your face. You’re not going to be keeping that smile in this job.’”
By committing to and maintaining a positive attitude, direction, poise and vision, female officers, Gasparini said, can go as far as they desire in their careers.
“You can go far because now you’ve become dependable, predictable and indispensable,” she said.
There are, however, unique challenges for female police officers — especially those who want to later promote or advance in their careers. In a study conducted by Gasparini, a female officer talked about how the expectations for her as an officer and mother are significantly different from her male colleagues.
“She said it wasn’t the same because she’s mom. She’s still expected to get the kids to school, take care of their healthcare, make sure they’re fed, take care of things at the house, cook and clean.”
In contrast, the female officer said her male colleagues, who are also fathers, may not have the same responsibilities when they go home.
“In most women’s cases, you’re asked so much of yourself — both professionally and personally — to make it in this career, especially when we start talking about promotions and increased responsibility. You’re still expected to do it all.”
This isn’t a novel idea for Lt. Julia Clasby, a mother of three. It’s a reality she knows all too well.
A police officer and a mother
Clasby, a 15-year veteran officer who currently serves as the operations bureau lieutenant at Seal Beach (California) Police Department, has experienced a lot of “firsts” throughout her career. In the more than 100-year history of Seal Beach PD, Clasby was the second female sergeant, first female lieutenant and only pregnant female officer. She coins herself as a “unicorn” in any room: “There are no female lieutenants that have three kids,” she clarified.
Her experience as a female officer rising through the ranks, as well as becoming a mother, was shared among her peers in what she calls a 5,000-word manifesto.
“After having my third baby, I was a new lieutenant looking for any female leader to have shared how they did it all. How they did it with kids. But I couldn’t find anything. Nobody was talking about it,” Clasby said.
Clasby decided that she would have to be the one to talk about it. To share her story. What she didn’t expect was how her story would resonate with thousands of other successful female law enforcement officers. “Women I didn’t know were coming to me saying, ‘This is my autobiography. How did you know what I went through?’”
“We must have people in leadership roles who show they are human ... that they go home, have families, leave early sometimes to go to a soccer game, take sick days and encourage others to do the same.”
While conducting her research for her essay, Clasby found a master’s thesis online called “The Second Shift” from a mother of two who now works for the FBI in Philadelphia. In her thesis, the woman studied female police officers and their “second shift” as mothers. Clasby reached out to the woman, sharing her 5,000-word essay with her.
“I had chills as I listened to her response. She talked about how much it resonated with her and how she was devastated to learn that she was pregnant. She had just been hired by the FBI; she was in training when she found out. She talked about how they had tried for five or seven years to get pregnant and now she was devastated. I love my kids. I love my job. I just don’t think they’re mutually exclusive.”
The raw experiences Clasby shared in her essay quickly became the voice of other female officers and mothers.
“I think we hold parenting against police officers. We want them to exist in this vacuum and ignore that part of their life that is so tremendously important. Ultimately, it comes down to what I would choose. Would I choose a career that’s maybe 30 years at best? Or would I choose my husband and my children that is my lifetime?”
As a supervisor, Clasby has witnessed firsthand the importance of leaders recognizing they are supervising humans: “We must have people in leadership roles who show they are human … that they go home, have families, leave early sometimes to go to a soccer game, take sick days and encourage others to do the same. If we’re showing that leadership, that grace for the people below us, then that’s only going to infiltrate our culture for the greater good.”
Clasby warns that if departments fail to embrace this change, they will continue to lose competent officers — both male and female.
“If your family is your No. 1 priority, but then we don’t allow for that in how we supervise officers, then they’re going to go to the place that gives them the best work-life balance. They’re going to stop being invested.”
This cultural shift, she notes, has yet to occur for female officers nationwide — a crucial element for the success of the 30x30 Initiative.
‘The recruits are coming, but how do we get them to stay?’
After writing her essay, Clasby also shared it with a friend at the Union City (California) Police Department.
“He said, ‘This is so well-written, but I just got to say, I don’t think that’s been the experience of all women,’” noting it wasn’t his wife’s experience, a sergeant and mother, or another sergeant at his department, who also has children and is expected to be police chief in the future.
“I said, ‘That’s great. I’m so happy for them. But one question: Did they read the op-ed or did you just ask them about it?’ He said they didn’t read it, so I told him to share it with them and let me know if it resonated or not.”
The next day, Clasby got a phone call.
“He said, ‘My wife read your article and said it was exactly her experience — everything you talked about happened to her. I can’t believe I missed it. We’ve been together throughout our law enforcement careers and I had no idea.’”
And remember that sergeant?
The first week she was in field training, her FTO told her, “I don’t even know why I’m training you. You’re going to leave in 10 years when you start having kids.”
“What if she internalized that so much to the point she was like, ‘What am I doing here?’ And this is someone we would like to be chief, right? So, what happens when they get to that time when they want to have kids? If we’re not applauding, celebrating and encouraging that, then why should they stay?”
In the video below, Clasby shares her experiences as a female officer and mother, offering insight and advice to help women in law enforcement navigate their path into leadership roles.
The solution to the problem isn’t simple. Clasby likened the shift to turning the Titanic — a slow and challenging process.
“Leadership must acknowledge, accommodate and advocate for women at every point in their career. I think women need to be promoted to these positions. We need to prepare those women. And part of that preparation is being intentional with mentorship. As the women already in these seats, we need to mentor others so we can bring them up.”
Another essential step, Clasby said, is accommodating women when they become pregnant to ensure they stay in the law enforcement industry.
“The foremost time for women to leave law enforcement is in their childbearing and child-rearing years. If we’re not accommodating them in this very temporary part of their career, then we’re not going to retain them. The recruits are coming, but how do we get them to stay?”
This is a question now-retired veteran police officer Toni Bland continually asks her criminal justice students and colleagues.
Promoting as a female officer
Toni Bland, an Army veteran, began her law enforcement career with the Orange County (California) Sheriff’s Department in the late 1980s. During her nearly 28-year career, she was promoted to investigator, sergeant, lieutenant, captain, commander and assistant sheriff.
After leaving the sheriff’s department, Bland became chief of district safety/security at Rancho Santiago Community College District in California. “After I accomplished that, I felt ready to relocate and do something different,” Bland said.
Bland now lives in Chandler, Arizona, where she teaches as a college adjunct faculty member and serves as a part-time academic director.
“Mentorship can help new or seasoned female officers shift their perspectives that may get in the way of promotion. As women, we sometimes overestimate the skills that are necessary to perform a job. We have those skills.”
As she reflected on her time with the sheriff’s department, Bland recalled the department having less than 200 women at the time she was hired: “That always seemed low to me, especially for a large sheriff’s department. And there weren’t many minorities, but I wasn’t the first by any stretch.”
When Bland was a young deputy, she recalled an incident she faced upon her first promotion.
“I had someone tell me, ‘Oh, you got promoted because you’re Black. I was mortified, but it went in one ear and out the other because I knew I was competent, well-educated and well-trained. I wasn’t so much offended by it as I was concerned – wondering how many other people thought that. But then I thought to myself, ‘I don’t care how many people think it. I’m going to do a good job and whatever people think I have no control over.’”
Keeping the bigger picture in mind, she said, helped her throughout her career and it’s a piece of advice she gives any aspiring law enforcement officer, including her students.
“It’s easy to take it personally and hold a grudge. But there’s a bigger picture. You need to let it go and keep moving,” Bland explained.
That mentality served her well throughout her career, especially as she began to network with other professionals within the department.
“If you work for a medium-to-large agency, it’s easy to get siloed into what you do as opposed to what’s happening around the organization. There are so many different areas that you won’t see or hear about unless you’re talking to individuals of those units or divisions. Having a mentor who can open your eyes to those opportunities is important.”
And that exact scenario played out for Bland while she was serving with the sheriff’s department.
“I was in a women’s golf tournament when a captain, who I didn’t know, ended up offering me a job after we struck up a conversation. I was working for her husband at the time, who told her how competent I was in patrol. Being involved in that networking opportunity was the catalyst that led to that position, and it changed the trajectory of my career.”
The new position, Bland said, helped her learn about investigations, arrest warrants and gave her an inch to later be promoted as an investigator. “As I moved up, I was encouraged by other women and men. Having that network of support, people to go talk to, was instrumental in my success.”
The importance of mentorship
Bland was involved in the sheriff’s department’s 12-month mentorship program, which matched officers with mentors outside of their command to provide coaching, promotional perspectives and insight into different assignments throughout the agency.
“I think what mentoring does, especially for women, is it helps to broaden their perspective about the organization, as well as the many opportunities that are available,” Bland said. “If you’re not talking to someone about these opportunities, then you may not even realize it’s something you can do.”
Mentorship can also help new or seasoned female officers shift their perspectives that may get in the way of promotion, another lesson Bland teaches her students.
“As women, we sometimes overestimate the skills that are necessary to perform a job. We have those skills. It’s about acknowledging to yourself that, ‘If I’m asked to do a job, I will seek the help I need to be successful, surround myself with people who want me to be successful and say yes.’ I didn’t understand that early in my career as I promoted, mentored, coached and networked. I realized I was so much better than I ever thought I was. When I finally figured that out, I had all these fears of promotion and advancement for no reason at all.”
In the below video, Bland shares how courage, mentorship and stepping outside your comfort zone are essential to breaking barriers in law enforcement.
Throughout Bland’s career, she admitted that asking for help was often seen as a sign of weakness. And while the messaging for women in law enforcement may be changing, Bland says agencies must underline that asking for help is a sign of confidence.
“You don’t know everything. There are people out there who can assist you. We have to change the mindset to where help is good. It doesn’t diminish your competence. It has to be an integral part of the mindset of women who want to be promoted. You have to be willing to ask for support to get you in a position to get those assignments you desire.”
Looking ahead
From the pioneering efforts of the first known female police officers to the contemporary contributions of officers like Gasparini, Clasby and Bland, the journey of women in law enforcement is characterized by both progress and ongoing challenges.
Whether through advocacy for better work-life balance, as Clasby champions, the educational endeavors that Bland pursues to prepare the next generation, or Gasparini’s efforts to promote empathy and communication as core policing skills, these women are integral to the ongoing evolution of policing.
They collectively underscore the vital need for continued progress toward equity and inclusion within law enforcement – a goal that remains as relevant today as it was more than a century ago.
As we look forward, it’s clear that the journey is far from complete. Yet, with every step taken by these women and those who follow, we edge closer to a future where women in police leadership positions are not exceptional but expected.
