Women Police around the World

Coverage in the Spanish Press during the First Two Decades of the 20th Century

Abstract

The starting point of this article is the question of how the integration of women into police forces in early 20th-century Spain was treated, received and criticized. The history of police institutions and the sociology of law enforcement have examined the process of incorporating women into policing, but empirical research in this direction is still scarce. This article aims to contribute to filling that gap.
Based on a documentary corpus of 72 items from Spanish print media published periodically between 1900 and 1920, the study analyzes the qualities, skills and interpretations that legitimized the inclusion of women in surveillance, security and crime-related activities in Western societies. The role of female officers was linked to their potential in fight against terrorism efforts and the emergence of new forms of espionage and criminal investigation. Allowing women to take on these roles was part of the broader advance in women’s labor rights. At the same time, within the institutional transformation this represented, it was also framed within expectations of state modernization.