Hall of Honor
c/o Criminal Justice and Law Center
Lansing Community College
P.O. Box 40010 Lansing, MI 48901-7201
(517) 483-1570

Some know only dimly what others have experienced directly, that Americans are greatly conflicted about the proper role of women and men in society. The women in the criminal justice system have experienced these conflicts as they pursue their place in law enforcement, the judicial system and corrections. They have shown great strength and vision. When you visit this exhibit we hope you will:

• acquaint yourself with the role of women in criminal justice.
• become familiar with Michigan’s criminal justice system.
• think how you can help attract more women and girls to careers in criminal justice.

In 1991, Women Police of Michigan established the Women in Criminal Justice Hall of Honor to honor those women and men who have contributed to the advancement of women in criminal justice.

The criminal justice system includes law enforcement personnel, lawyers, prosecutors and judges, as well as corrections personnel, parole and probation officers.

The goals of this exhibit spring from the goals of the Hall of Honor: to increase public awareness of the role women play in criminal justice and to recognize those who have expanded the role or improved the status of women in criminal justice.

This exhibit was created through a collaboration with The School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University and The Michigan Women’s Historical Center & Hall of Fame.

Elizabeth Homer, Curator Michigan Women’s Historical Center & Hall of Fame Sheila Dunham, Assistant to the Curator

Background: In 1991, Women Police of Michigan, Inc. established the Women in Criminal Justice Hall of Honor to honor those women who have contributed to the advancement of women in criminal justice. Its goals are: to increase public awareness of the role women have played and continue to play in criminal justice, and to recognize those who have expanded the role or improved the status of women in criminal justice.

Because the Hall of Honor was established by Women Police of Michigan, the perception is that it is law enforcement based. Yet, the criminal justice system includes corrections officers, parole and probation officers, lawyers, prosecutors, and judges as well as law enforcement personnel. There is a need to expand the sponsorship of the Hall to provide a much wider base of support and recognition for women in the field.

Mission: Establish a new structure to create the Women in Criminal Justice Hall of Honor Council whose mission is to maintain and to expand the supporting base of the Women in Criminal Justice Hall of Honor.

Structure: Establish the Women in Criminal Justice Hall of Honor Council in partnership with the Center for Criminal Justice at Lansing Community College. The Council will be composed of representatives from co-sponsoring organizations whose memberships include women in the many areas of criminal justice. Each participating organization will appoint a representative to the Council. The Hall of Honor award will be made once every three years at a major event.

1990
PATRICIA A. CUZA In February 1983 Patricia Cuza was appointed Director for the Office of Criminal Justice Planning where she served until her retirement in 1991. From 1972 until 1977 she served as Executive Director for the Michigan Women’s Commission. One of her responsibilities during that time was to handle the first public hearings on rape and domestic violence in the state. From 1977 to 1983 she was the administrator of Michigan’s Crime Victim’s Compensation Fund.

1991
PATRICIA J. BOYLE In 1983 Justice Boyle gave up her lifetime tenured Federal judgeship to fill a vacancy on the Michigan Supreme Court where she currently serves. Justice Boyle began her career as a legal research assistant and was quickly appointed Assistant United States Attorney, serving in that position for four years. In 1968 she joined the Wayne County Prosecuting Attorney’s staff where she was appointed Chief Appellate Attorney and became involved in rewriting Michigan’s sexual assault legislation. In 1976 Patricia Boyle was appointed Judge of Detroit Recorder’s Court. In 1978 she was appointed to the Federal bench.

1992 - Historical
CLARISSA MAE YOUNG In 1946 Clarissa Young became the first woman hired by the Lansing Police Department. Many firsts as a woman followed: promotion to Detective in 1948, Sergeant in 1951, Lieutenant in 1954, and Captain in 1962. She was the first woman to hold the rank of captain in Michigan and perhaps in the nation. In 1968 she became one of the three co-founders of Women Police of Michigan. The Lansing Police Department’s 911 Explorer Post was named in her honor. In 1970 she received the Lansing Rotary Liberty Bell Award for her outstanding accomplishments and achievements in criminal justice leadership; in 1977 she received the YWCA Diana Award for outstanding accomplishments in law enforcement.

1992 - Contemporary
BILLIE WILLIS In 1991 Commander Billie Willis retired from the Detroit Police Department after thirty-three years of outstanding service. She was the first black female to be appointed to the rank of Inspector and upon promotion to the rank of Commander, became the first black female in Detroit Police Department history to command a police precinct. In 1973 she attended the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia - the second black female in the United States to graduate from this prestigious training.

Barbara Lee, Michigan's Western District U.S. Marshal, the youngest U.S. Marshal in the agency's history, shown here with former Deputy U.S. Marshal, and sister Hall of Honor Council member, Marie Howe.

1789
U.S. Marshal Service The offices of the U.S. Marshal and Deputy Marshal were created more than 200 years ago by the first Congress in the Judiciary Act of 1789, the same legislation that established the federal judicial system. The Marshals were given extensive authority to support the federal courts within their judicial districts and to carry out all lawful orders issued by judges, Congress, or the President.

The Marshals and their Deputies served the subpoenas, summonses, writs, warrants, and other process issued by the courts, made all the arrests, and handled all the prisoners. They also disbursed the money.

The Marshals paid the fees and expenses of the court clerks, U.S. Attorneys, jurors, and witnesses. They rented the courtrooms and jail space and hired the bailiffs, criers, and janitors. They made sure the prisoners were present, the jurors were available, and the witnesses were on time.

The Marshals also provided local representation for the federal government within their districts. They took the national census every 10 years through 1870. They distributed presidential proclamations, collected a variety of statistical information on commerce and manufacturing, supplied the names of government employees for the national register, and performed other routine tasks needed for the central government to function effectively. Over the past 200 years, Congress and the president also called on the Marshals to carry out unusual or extraordinary missions, such as registering enemy aliens in time of war, capturing fugitive slaves, sealing the American border against armed expeditions aimed at foreign countries and swapping spies with the Soviet Union.

1871
Michigan’s First Woman Lawyer
Sarah Killgore (Wertman) has the distinction of being the first woman to graduate from the University of Michigan law school, and later that same year, of being the first woman admitted to the Michigan Supreme Court. She received her L.L.B. in 1871, and in 1912 wrote this brief statement about her career:

Sarah Killgore Wertman...next began the study of law, and attended the law school in Chicago, Illinois during 1869. She was the first woman law student in the Michigan University, and the first graduate in Law from that school in 1871. She was the first woman admitted to the Supreme Court of Michigan or of any State in the United States.

June 16, 1875 she married Jackson S. Wertman, an attorney in Indianapolis, Indiana. The statutes of Indiana required for admission to the Bar, “Male citizens of good moral character,” hence she was compelled to content herself with office work.

In November, 1878, they changed their location to Ashland, Ohio, and in September, 1893, she passed the required examination of that State, and was admitted to the Supreme Court of Ohio.

Reprinted from the Michigan Bar Journal, June 1984, Volume 63, No. 6.

1897
Only Woman Game and Fish Warden in the United States
Mrs. Warren Neal of Grand Traverse County, Michigan is a duly commissioned county game and fish warden. She is a slender, sprightly little woman in the prime of life with brown wavy hair and honest bright blue eyes. Mrs. Neal weighs 108 pounds, but can row and manage a boat with more skill than some muscular men.

Mrs. Neal’s explanation of how she incurred her appointment is as follows: “Why there was a warden, but he could not come up here and stop the spearing and netting of fish and killing game out of season, and I asked Mr. Osborn, State Game Warden, to appoint me, and he did.”

Reprinted from the Official Bulletin of the Sportsmen’s Association.

1914
Detroit, Michigan Police Department
Due to the efforts of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union police matrons were appointed in Detroit in 1885 (Mary A.F. Collins). In 1914 the Girls’ Protective League began discussing the necessity for women police officers in dealing with individual girls detained by the police for “investigation”. In many cases the League staff were being called in for consultation and for personal and social adjustments when the girls were discharged from custody.

In 1916 the League directors gathered all the available information concerning women police and began a definite campaign to create public opinion, a campaign which they pursued vigorously until the desired result was obtained. In fact, the eventual creation of the Women’s Division in the Police Department was due almost entirely to their efforts. They brought to Detroit in June, 1917, Mrs. Alice Stebbins Wells through “whose wise counsel much impetus was given the movement. The information she was able to give and the fine spirit of understanding did much for the League’s attitude in the months that followed.”

In November, 1917, they petitioned the Common Council for appropriations to pay the salaries of 3 women officers. The Council called for a conference with the Board, who to reinforce their position brought from Camp Custer, Miss Virginia N. Murray, then a field supervisor in the federal Commission on Training Camp Activities. The desired appropriations were voted. Commissioner of Police, James Couzens, however, state that no women officers would be appointed until the Corporation Counsel could give a decision relative to the legality of such action. Mr. Couzens resigned as Commissioner in July, 1918, to become Mayor of Detroit.

He appointed, in January, 1919, as Commissioner of Police, Dr. James Inches, then serving as Commissioner of Health. In his farewell to his staff and his corps of nurses he said, “if women will be the help in the Police Department that nurses are in the Health Department, I will appoint a hundred of them.” Shortly afterwards he met at dinner, in the home of a Director of the League, representatives from this organization. As a result of this conference, Dr. Inches agreed to appoint a woman officer to interview all women and girls held in the Police Detention House. In March, 1919, he appointed Miss Josephine Davis - a graduate of Michigan University and a member of the staff of the Girls’ Protective League, who had cooperated in many instances during Dr. Inches’ administration of the Health Board. She established and carried on in the department, a program of social adjustment with the women who were taken into custody by the police. The money for this salary was taken from what is known as the “auxiliary fund”, a fund maintained for the purpose of carrying auxiliary (not regular) officers.

The League again brought Miss Murray to Detroit, and she outlined a program of work. The Common Council made a special appropriation of $3,000 for her salary, and in January, 1921, Commissioner Inches appointed her Director of a Women’s Division. During this year Miss Murray, who still remained General Secretary of the New York Travelers’ Aid Society, spent two weeks of each month in Detroit. Miss Davis became supervisor of case work. Fourteen women officers were appointed during the first six months of the year at a salary of $1,600, taken also from the “auxiliary fund”.

In July, 1921, the Commissioner did not appoint a possible 20 uniformed men patrol officers but allowed, in the budget, for 20 women officers at a salary of $2,000 each.

In May, 1922, Miss Eleanor Hutzel, for twelve years Director of the Social Service at the Detroit Women’s Hospital and Infant’s Home, was appointed Director of the Women’s Division, an office she still holds, but with the added rank of Deputy Police Commissioner. This rank was given to her after the City Charter of Detroit was amended in March, 1923, to provide, in law, for a woman director of a Women’s Division, and who should rank as Deputy Commissioner.

The fact that provision is made by charter for a woman director as long as there are women officers, and the fact that there are now 30 confirmed officers in the Women’s Division, who cannot be discharged unless charges are preferred, and then sustained against them by the police trial board and Common Council, would seem to assure sufficiently the continuance of women officers. The greatest security of the Women’s Division according to Miss Hutzel lies in the fact that both the community and the police department, as a whole, have accepted the fact that the Women’s Division fills a real need. As long as there are girl problems, there is no more question of its abandonment than there is of abolishing the traffic division as long as traffic problems exist...”

Reprinted from Women Police: A Study of the Development and Status of the Women Police Movement, by Chloe Owings,(Frederick H. Hitchcock, publisher, New York, 1925).

1919
Detroit Young Women Get Police Badges
While no women are allowed on the payroll of the metropolitan police force of Detroit, it is permissible to have them as special officers, and the two young women ... carry badges of authority, given them by James Couzens, police commissioner. They are Miss Josephine Davis and Miss Helen Pulford, investigators for the Girls’ Protective League. In case they come up to you and ask you to change your actions or order you to “go home at once” you would best obey - otherwise you may tell your troubles to the court.

The regular work of the two “officers” is to see that girls are protected about their daily duties on recreation centers and to work with police and court officials in making the city safer for young women by keeping them from questionable places. Miss Davis is a Traverse City young woman while Miss Pulford lives at 156 Merrick Avenue, Detroit. Similar badges have been given to Miss Mary Hulbert, League Secretary now at Camp Custer, and Miss Ethel Moore, at Selfridge aviation field.

Reprinted from the Detroit News, (circa 1919).

1920
Woman is Held Own ‘Property’
A woman’s services, thoughts and actions are not the property of her husband.

Henry A. Mandell established this when he dismissed the application for a writ of prohibition restraining Mrs. Phoebe L. Patterson, justice of peace for Plymouth Township, from holding her position on the ground that as a married woman she has no authority to be a judge of Michigan. The plaintiff in the case was William Leibnitz, but Judge Mandell brought the case to an abrupt end Friday morning before James Pound, attorney for Leibnitz, had gone further back than the seventh century in his assertion that woman is and always has been a chattel of man, and as such, can not possibly be qualified to hold public office.

Reprinted from the Detroit Free Press, Saturday, December 18, 1920.

1920
Sheriff Names Five Women as Staff Deputies
Five women in the first of their sex to hold the office in any but a nominal way will be officially sworn in as deputy sheriffs Friday afternoon, Sheriff Irving J. Coffin announced Thursday. They are: Miss Mariam Rose, Mrs. Mary Lentz, Mrs. Nora Deross, Mrs. Elizabeth Litchenfield, and Mrs. Marie McCreedie.

Reprinted from the Detroit Free Press, Friday, December 31, 1920.

1921
1st Policewoman is Social Worker
Out of more than 100 applicants, Mrs. Vanallen Coolidge, 2286 West Grand Boulevard, is the first policewoman appointed by Miss Virginia Mae Murray, recently engaged by Dr. James W. Inches, police commissioner, to organize a woman’s division of the department...

Since her graduation from Central High School, Mrs. Coolidge has been engaged in social welfare work with the state board of health, the Girls Protective League and the Detroit Board of Health.

Reprinted from the Detroit Free Press, Saturday, January 8, 1921.

1921
Old Jurors Oppose Service by Women in City’s Courts
“My wife or daughter on a jury? Well, I should say not!”

The oldest of the jurors of the present panel in municipal court were emphatic in their criticism of the proposed use of women as jurors. Not a man on the panel would admit that a jury was the place for a woman, and when their wives or daughters were mentioned as possible jurors, they laughed at the suggestion. All agreed it was “no place for a woman.”

“I have been sailing the fresh water for 45 years”, said Captain Alexander Clifford, 62, 231 Sheridan Avenue, “and I have been associated in that time with what is commonly known as the roughest class of men. I have heard drunken sailors talk; I have heard dockwoilopers longshoremen and deck hands curse, and rave; but I have never heard in all those 45 years of such association, the filthy, dirty things I have been obliged to listen to in my service on this panel. And to think of women having to listen to such stuff. Why, I was surprised when I heard it. I know that a drunken sailor would blush if he heard the testimony in some of the cases we have tried...”

Reprinted from the Detroit Free Press, Sunday, January 2, 1921.

1921
6 Women as Jury Will Try Man on Liquor Charge
Six women will comprise the jury that will try Mike George, 186 Victor Avenue, Monday afternoon on a charge of having two gallons of raisin whisky in his place of business.

All of the women are well known in Highland Park, where the case is to be tried before Justice William A. Rankin. They are: Mrs. T. Ashton, 239 Winona Avenue; Mrs. F.J. Barrett, 55 Puritan Avenue; Mrs. W.N. Braley, 25 Monterey Avenue; Mrs. F.J. Calvert, 72 Avalon Avenue; Mrs. Fred K. McEldowney, 43 North Avenue; Mrs. J.T. Pool, 55 McLean Avenue . Deputy Sheriff George Voorhis, who drew the panel of 18 names from which these six were drawn, said Friday he believed women should serve as jurors, but that he did not believe in mixed juries.

Reprinted from the Detroit Free Press, Saturday, January 8, 1921.

Michigan’s Women Sheriffs

All were appointed after the deaths of their sheriff-husbands, with the exception of Skyles, who was appointed to fill an unexpired term. Henkel was also elected by popular vote.

1921-1922
Estella S. Gates, Benzie County

1921 - 1922
Jane Johnston, Roscommon County

4/22 - 12/22
Lulu B. McAuley, Huron County

1923 - 1924
Emily Reid McGuiness, Sanilac County

1926 - 1928
Ileea H. Henkel, Montcalm County

1927 - 1928
Sylvia Kirk Myers, Gladwin County

2/32 - 12/32
Jane I. Cutler, Berrien County

7/34 - 12/34
Grace Miller, Iosco County

1939 - 1946
Ida Jarve Bergh, Keweenaw County

1941 - 1942
Anna Brinda Thomas, Isabella County

2/43 - 3/43
Mary Johannes, Arenac County

1944 - 1946
Argene D. Pelletier, Alger County

1947 - 1948
Louise Dueltgen Smith, Presque Isle

11/48-12/48
Victoria W. Armstrong, Chippewa County

1990 - 1992
Brenda Garrard Skyles, Lake County

Source: Alan Eichman, Ph.D.

1926
Ileea Hinkle was a school teacher. When her husband, who was Sheriff of Montcalm County, was slain in an altercation with two moonshiners, she became the Republican Party’s candidate for sheriff, after five caucus ballots. She fought the forces of “moonshine, booze, and bathtub gin” from September of 1926 through 1928.

Source: Alan Eichman, Ph.D. and Donald Godell, Montcalm County Sheriff.

1929
Katherine Hill Campbell aroused the social conscience of the women of Michigan, and their new-found voting power, to reform the women’s prison system in Michigan. An advocate of rehabilitation and the cottage concept for housing female offenders, she developed the Women’s Division of the Detroit House of Corrections and became its first Superintendent in 1929.

1939
Ida Bergh was the first woman to be sheriff of Keweenaw County in 1939. When her husband died she was appointed to finish out his term. She was re-elected three times, applying her philosophy of kindness and cleanliness to the courthouse and jail. During her tenure the crime rate went down in the county; some said it was due to the great respect she commanded.

Source: Alan Eichman, Ph.D.

You may be asked to represent the “women’s point of view” as if all women had one point of view.

You are spot lighted whenever you are promoted because you are the first and the only woman in that position.

You are appointed to every committee or project because they need “a woman” and there are just not enough to go around.

You are denied feedback because the supervisor does not really know how to talk to a woman.

You are left out of the communication loop because colleagues would not mind seeing you fail.

Susan M. Hunter, “A Look at the Road Ahead,” Corrections Today, August 1992.

Prior to the 1960’s the role of women was confined to a separate Women’s Bureau specializing in social issues. As the civil rights movement blossomed so did the push for equality for women in law enforcement.

Cynthia Eggers joined the Detroit Police Department in 1962 at the age of twenty-two where she investigated sex crimes for the Women’s Division. In 1974 she was selected as an original member of the Squad Seven, a newly created homicide unit on the Detroit Police Department. Sgt. Eggers is the first known woman homicide detective in the United States. She retired after 25 years on the force where she spent 14 of those years chasing killers. She is a native of Nashville, Michigan and a graduate of Michigan State University.

Tommie Stewart, Tanya Padgett and Martha Parks were among the first women allowed on patrol in the United States. They worked for the Ann Arbor Police beginning in 1972. The patrolwomen wore uniforms, carried a gun, and walked street patrols.

Clarrisa Young became Lansing’s first policewoman in 1946. By 1953 she had been promoted to detective sergeant and was commanding officers of the departments’ Youth Bureau. In 1962 she was made Lansing’s first female captain. Throughout her career she gave priority to children and teens. She gained national recognition for youth work and was a trend setter in developing a cooperation between police, schools, and social agencies. Capt. Young retired from the Lansing Police Department in 1972. She continued to work with schools until her death in 1979.

Noreen E. Hillary and Kay E. Whitfield became Michigan State Police’s first policewomen in May of 1967. Both were assigned to work with juvenile problems. Noreen Hillary is from Grand Rapids, Michigan and graduated from Marymount College in Kansas. Kay Whitfield is a native of Pontiac, Michigan and a graduate of Michigan State University.

Sue K. Bell Brown became the first policewoman for the East Lansing Police Department in 1965. Her responsibilities included school safety programs, youth activities, and general investigative work. She began as a secretary with the force in 1964. Sue Bell Brown reached the rank of Sgt. before retiring in 1981.

1921
Uniforms and Rough Stuff Not in Role of Policewoman
Detroit’s policewoman, to be appointed by Miss Virginia Mae Murray, who has come on from New York City for a year to put the new order of things upon a satisfactory working basis, will not be the stern minions of the law one fancies, if they are anything at all like Miss Murray herself.

She is not only one of the gentlest of women, of the strictly feminine, rather than the feminist type, but her outlook upon life is big. The work of the policewomen will largely be among erring girls...

“...A uniform? Not if I can help it,” Miss Murray said Tuesday. “I certainly do not approve of making policewomen any more conspicuous than their position demands. They will, of course, have full police powers, along with the men on the force, but their badges, I hope, will be carried in their handbags, to be used only when necessary...”

...The number of appointments to be made has not been settled definitely, but it is expected that there will be 15 policewomen eventually. Miss Josephine Davis is the only policewoman in Detroit now, and she has held a position under appointment of Dr. Inches for two years....

Reprinted from the Detroit Free Press, Wednesday, January 5, 1921.

1942
Policewomen Don Navy Blue Dress
Most of Detroit’s 55 policewomen were wearing new navy blue uniforms today, and not feeling particularly happy about it.

Priorities were lifted so the lady policemen could be outfitted, and the packages have been arriving all week. There is to be a review by the commissioner during the day and after that the ladies will return to civilian garb. The cost: A blue felt hat, cut on the lines of a police cap, but with feminine lines, $6; blue dress with short sleeves, $11.28; sharkskin collar for the dress, $1; blue gabardine topcoat, $46. The women also pay $12.85 for their oxfords, but these are not considered part of the uniform.

Inspector Eleonore L. Hutzel, head of the Women’s Division , said the distinctive garb would enable her investigators to get through police and fire lines. Miss Hutzel wore her uniform today.

Reprinted from the Detroit News, July 29, 1942.

1948
Uniformly, the Gals Get Last Word
Even policewomen have the last word.

And, Police Commissioner Harry S. Toy, being a mere man, nodded in agreement. He wanted policewomen to wear uniforms.

They voted:

To wear uniforms full time - unanimously “no”.

To wear uniforms for parade duty only - three “yes”, the rest “no”.

To wear uniforms on night duty - unanimously “no”.

To wear uniforms for routine inspections - unanimously “no”.

To wear uniforms if the City paid for them - unanimously “no”.

The policewomen said uniforms would hamper them in their jobs and embarrass those with whom they had to work on cases involving sex crimes.

They won’t wear uniforms.

Reprinted from the Detroit Free Press, November 19, 1948.

1949
Lady Cops Shriek “No!” as Toy Unveils Uniform
Anguished screams poured out of the Police Women’s Division Monday.

It was no hysterical prisoner. It was the police ladies themselves.

Word had just come that they had lost the most feminine of all feminine freedoms - the right to dress as they pleased.

Commissioner Harry S. Toy had designed them a new uniform! They are all going to look as much alike as - well - two policemen in a platoon.

The ladies had voted - if you will pardon the expression - “to a man” against uniforms, against regimentation, and against Toy instead of Dior as a fashion designer.

Mr. Toy, who had kept their new garb as a top-drawer secret, sprang it Monday.

He unveiled Policewoman Carol Williams in the new styles for lady cops. He beamed, but word of his latest creation set women four floors away, screaming.

The outfit started with a beret made popular by Field Marshal Montgomery seven years ago. Seven years ancient... mind you... for a hat! For an embellishment it had a gold wreath which looked like the one the GAR popularized a half-century ago. Most of the GAR have stopped wearing them.

The uniform, the police ladies complained, was an unimaginative indigo blue... like all cops’... and even was copied from WAC styles.

The coat, they moaned, was copied from an undistinguished line of old coats.. but it does have a zipper lining.

The only good thing about the uniform - and this was strictly a man’s view - was that it was a little on the form-fitting side and the right woman might do things for it.

In fact, it was so tight that no lady cop could pack a pistol without revealing a bump in the wrong place.

We probably can wear holsters, Miss Williams suggested.

Toy said he had heard about the plunging neckline but could not figure out a way to work it in with the pale blue neckties - honest, neckties! - that he wants his lady policemen to wear.

The Commissioner added that he wants his ladies all spic and span - and all looking alike by the next Police Field Day.

Neither Toy nor Miss Williams would reveal whether the Commissioner had insisted on regulation police underwear underneath.

The policewomen’s screams weren’t only because their new look wouldn’t get a second look from any man. They also have to plunk down $150 for the ensemble.

“It might be cheap for Toy but he doesn’t live on salaries like ours,” one lovely policewoman groaned.

“And in these uniforms we’ll wind up feeling we ought to tip our hats to women.”

Reprinted from the Detroit Free Press, May 3, 1949.

1971
Pantsuits for Policewomen Given Go-Ahead by Nichols
Detroit Policewomen now will be permitted to wear pantsuits while on duty, Police Commissioner John F. Nichols announced today.

Nichols said that details of the dress code change would be left to top ranking policewomen. The Commissioner was mistaken, however, if he thought his announcement would be greeted with delight by all of the members of his Women’s Section.

Inspector Dorothy Gay, who heads the section, said she would appoint a committee to set standards on what style of pantsuits are acceptable.

Mrs. Gay made it clear that the pantsuit standards would discourage any crazy-looking styles and would be geared to helping maintain the section’s half-century reputation for conservative clothing.

Policewomen predicted that it might be some time yet before they are cleared to wear pantsuits, a privilege petitioned for months ago by Barbara Weide....

Reprinted from the Detroit News circa 1971.

Lt. Nadeen (Yovanovich) Hillary (left), third female hired by Michigan State Police posing here with first uniform (1967) which was not intended for patrol. Lt. Hillary is wearing the current State Police Class A Uniform. In 1979 the trooper hat was changed to the same as the men's. The "policewoman" badge was replaced with the standard "trooper" badge in 1975.

1974
Wanted: One Uniform to Make 123 Officers Look Great
...Not only are Detroit women police officers on an equal footing with their male counterparts, but they will be in uniform by late summer.

A year after they were assigned to ride in marked scout cars with men officers, they will finally look like partners, not girlfriends.

Inspector (Warna) Roberts was assigned to come up with a uniform that was functional for all 123 women police officers. The uniform had to fit (if not flatter) all figures from a size 8 with a 22-inch waist to a size 42. It must be worn with a bulky garrison belt loaded with equipment when the woman officer is on patrol (For inside work she will use the standard big purse.)

The first uniform shown to women officers was in a blue as shrill as a policeman’s whistle. It came in a snaggable polyester knit that wrinkled and stayed wrinkled. It was unacceptable.

Two weeks ago they saw a navy blue suit modeled. A stock sample from a uniform company, it drew criticism for its badly fitted jacket and straight rump-hugging skirt.

Inspector Roberts, working from this sample and incorporating suggestions, has come up with an Ike jacket, A-line skirt and flared pants that the majority approve...

Reprinted from the Detroit News, February 20, 1974.

At first women received no training as recruits. Promotional opportunities were almost nonexistent. It was thought that women should not make arrests. The idea that women should only work with women and children and only in a protective function changed to stressing a law enforcement function, but still only with women and children.

Meredith Kowalski,
Deputy Sheriff, Eaton County, 1996

Florene McGlothian Taylor,
East Lansing Police Officer

Chris Soper,
Detroit Police Department, 1976

Lisa Phillips,
First Woman Motorcycle Officer,
Lansing Police Department, 1991

Deputy Chief Dorothy Knox,
Head of the Community Service Division
of the Detroit Police Department,
in March of 1993, speaks with Inspector David L. Simmons.

1948
Formed Korean Policewomen’s Unit
Generally, when one returns from abroad after a year and six months, there is bound to be some confusion.

But when it is Ida Lippman, pioneer policewoman, playwright and attorney, all is confusion.

Miss Lippman has returned from the most important job of her life: Forming a policewomen’s division of the Korean National Police at the request of the American Military Government....

Reprinted from the Detroit Free Press, May 9, 1948.

1996 Historical Honoree--Josephine Sears Davis

1996 Contemporary Honoree--Pamela K. Withrow

Women organized to change the laws, policies and programs of the criminal justice system for themselves, their colleagues, criminals and victims to more closely resemble their vision of a just world.

1968
In 1968 there were approximately 200 women in law enforcement in Michigan, when a group of policewomen from across the state gathered to explore the idea of a state organization for women police. The following year, Women Police of Michigan was formally organized with a nine point purpose:

• to bring all policewomen together to get acquainted
• to set standards for the profession of policewomen
• to help relationships within the departments
• to foster education and research within the field
• to share common problems
• to strengthen the role of policewomen
• to encourage other women to come into police work, and
• to share ideas.

Penny Harrington made the national news in 1985 when she was selected as the first female Chief of Police of a major city in the U.S., Portland. Born in Michigan and educated in police administration at Michigan State University, she rose through the ranks of the Portland, Oregon Police Department. She filed over 40 sex discrimination complaints to open policing to women. Her efforts eliminated segregated classification systems, height requirements, discriminatory testing procedures and sex-separated promotion systems.

“There were lawsuits from inmates, unions, and staff - including a warden or two - cruel social and job isolation of women officers by their male counterpoints, sexual harassment, and setups for failure were unanticipated and troubling barriers....Some of the issues of twenty years ago are now moot because legal employment rights of women have been defined. However, the two principal reasons for employing women in corrections remain unchanged: the doctrine of fundamental fairness and the need to expand corrections’ talent pool.” -Perry Johnson, 1991

Johnson was head of the Michigan Department of Corrections for twelve years.

Making the Change

Over the past three decades women have used the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and state laws to win wider opportunities in the criminal justice system. Affirmative Action has helped many women and minorities who were previously discriminated against.

In 1992 a federal judge ordered Detroit to pay back pay to about 1,000 female police officers. The decision was the last in a series of ruling and legal entanglements in an April 1973 class action suit charging female cops were either discriminated against at time of hiring or lost out to their male counterparts in promotions or equal pay.

In the mid-1970’s, the late U.S. District Judge Ralph Freeman made several rulings to address discrimination in the police department. In May, 1974, he ordered the department to hire more qualified female applicants (thus the City’s only all female recruit academy class of January 24, 1974) and required that 19 women officers be promoted to sergeant. He later awarded retroactive seniority in case of layoffs for “all identifiable female victims of illegal hiring discrimination”.

SOURCE: Detroit News, June 3, 1992.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Affirmative Action Laws have made a difference in Corrections. The increasing employment of women in this traditionally male dominated field has been marked with lawsuits.

The most dramatic change in correctional job opportunities for women has come in male prisons and jails. In slightly more than a decade, the doors of these institutions were opened for women to work in almost every type of job available.

The most contested area in corrections for employment of women has been that of the correctional officer in male facilities.

Historically, pregnancy meant termination for women in the workplace. Teachers, nurses, and other professional women often found themselves unemployed as soon as their pregnancy became known. To address this problem, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1979 required that pregnancy be treated like any other temporary disability. It also specified that pregnancy be addressed in agency policies and procedures.

In 1969, the Joint Commission on Correctional Manpower and Training found that women comprised 12 percent of the correctional work force. By 1990, the number employed in all areas of adult and juvenile corrections increased to 43 percent.

The percentage of women working as officers in male facilities between 1978 and 1988 rose from 6.6 percent to 12.9 percent.

Membership in the American Corrections Association, in 1990, was about 28 percent female. Women made up 48 percent of the Board of Governors and 47 percent of the Delegate Assembly.

The criminal judicial process in the United states has numerous participants.

• The judge serves at the head of the court. She serves as the final authority on law who must ensure the rights of the accused and as an administrator over the court.
• The prosecutor is a government lawyer and the chief law enforcement authority of a community. She assists in matters of legislation and criminal justice reform.
• The defense attorneys are advocates for the accused.

Anne R. Davidow (1898-1991), pioneer woman attorney, in 1948 she argued before the United States Supreme Court, the significant women’s employment rights case of Goesaert v. Cleary, a case contesting a Michigan law which prohibited women from working as bartenders unless their father or husbands owned the bar.

Patricia Boyle of Detroit gave up a lifetime federal judgeship to accept appointment to the Michigan Supreme Court. She was then elected in 1984.

Mary Stallings Coleman of Battle Creek, was the first woman to serve on the Michigan Supreme Court. She was elected in 1972. In 1979 she became the court’s first woman Chief Justice.

Hilda R. Gage has made enduring contributions to law and government, health and human services, law education and broken many gender barriers in the legal profession, such as being elected Chairperson to the National Conference of State Trial Judges.

Dorothy Comstock Riley, first woman to be appointed to the Michigan Court of Appeals in 1976, she was appointed to the Supreme Court, and in 1986 was elected Chief Justice.

Emelia Christine Schaub (1891-1995), first woman practicing prosecuting attorney in the State of Michigan, is perhaps best known for her efforts on behalf of the Ottawa and Chippewa of Leelanau County. Jessie Pharr Slaton (1908-1983), the first woman referee in the 43-year history of Detroit’s Recorder’s Court Traffic and Ordinance Division. She was later appointed a Common Pleas Judge and served as Chair of the Michigan Crime Victims Compensation Board.

The Michigan Court of Appeals made history Tuesday when its first-ever all-woman panel of judges convened to hear cases.

The court’s senior female judge, Barbara MacKenzie of Petoskey, is presiding over the panels’ three-day session in Detroit, where 42 civil and criminal appeals are on the agenda.

Other panelists are Maureen Reilly of Grosse Pointe Park, who was elected last November, and Elizabeth Weaver of Glen Arbor.

Women now hold five of the Appeals Court’s 24 seats, including three of the six new spots filled in last year’s election. The other new female judges are Janet Neff and Marilyn Kelly.

SOURCE: Women Police of Michigan Criminal Justice Woman Newsletter, August 1989.

1996
1996 was a banner year for African-American women in the Judicial System. These seven women serve as President of the top Judicial and Attorney Organizations in the state.

Judge Beverly Nettles-Nickerson,
Ingham County Bar Association

Victoria Roberts,
Michigan State Bar

Judge June E. Blackwell-Hatcher,
Michigan Association of Black Judges

Judge Jeannette O’Banner-Owen,
Michigan District Judges Association

Judge Carolyn H. Williams,
Michigan Probate Judges Association

Judge Vera Massey-Jones,
Michigan Judges Association

Julie Gibson,
Wolverine Bar Association

American Bar Association commission data indicate that women now account for about 45 percent of law students and 23 percent of the bar, but only 19 percent of tenured faculty, 13 percent of law firm partners, 10 percent to 12 percent of judges and 8 percent of law school deans. This under-representation cannot be explained simply by disparities in the pool of eligible candidates. For example, the Glass Ceiling report finds that New York women’s rate of becoming partner was 5 percent and men’s 17 percent during the most recent period under review.

Other studies also have found substantial gender-linked disparities in promotion and pay among lawyers with similar positions, experience and qualifications. In research reviewed by the ABA commission, pay gaps range from 10 percent to 35 percent among male and female general counsel. What limited data are available for women of color find even more significant under-representation in positions of greatest status and reward. Most explanations for such patterns fall into two general categories: lingering, although largely unconscious, gender and racial bias, and unresponsiveness to work/family conflicts.

Reprinted from The National Law Journal, Monday March 18, 1996.

1977
A Terror in Court
...Jean Marson is the only female among 21 staff members in Wayne County’s Screening and Preparation Department at Recorder’s Court on St. Antoine Street. Each year, she and three other assistant prosecutors do 12,000 preliminary examinations in which they try to show that felony has been committed and there is reasonable cause to believe the defendant should stand trial for the crime. If they succeed, the defendant is bound over for trial, if they fail, the case is dismissed without a trial for lack of evidence.

Reprinted from the Detroit Free Press, Wednesday, February 23, 1977.

...Textbooks and standard references give little information about women’s contributions to the field (of corrections). In 1976, for example, the Federal Law Enforcement Assistance Administration published an illustrated 200-year history of criminal justice in the United States that contained only one significant picture of a woman working in corrections. She was an 1800’s frontier jailer, who looked like a female version of Rambo with a six-gun strapped on her ample hip. Not a very positive image for women to emulate.

Only in recent years have scholars begun piecing together the long, distinguished history of women’s contributions to corrections. Their findings reflect that women have been active in a number of roles across the full spectrum of adult and juvenile corrections, probation, parole and institutions since the beginning...

As committed reformers, women have always led the fight to improve correctional programs and services. Beginning in the mid-1800’s, they chaired, as well as served on, governing boards and citizen committees overseeing correctional agencies. After gaining the right to vote and hold office in 1920, women made and administered legislation advocating more effective correctional programs and services. They also served as citizen volunteers, contributing immeasurable time and talent in all areas of corrections by enriching and augmenting offender programs and services.

As has been widely documented, women had a major role in developing, directing and working in programs and facilities for adult and juvenile female offenders. In these capacities they introduced many innovations, such as unit management and team classification, now commonplace throughout corrections.

Reprinted from Corrections Today, August 1992 (American Corrections Association) “Looking Back on 200 Years o f Valuable Contributions” by Joann B. Morton.

Women now work in all areas of corrections, from line officers to maximum security to warden, from probation and parole officers to chief probation officers and commissioners of parole and corrections.

Sylvia Collins,
Special Education Teacher

Lisa Cox,
Food Service Supervisor

Diane Johnson,
Housing Officer
Ingham County Lock Up

Janice Hughes,
Executive Assistant
Ionia County Sheriff Lock Up

Stephenie Burnsworth,
Housing Officer
Eaton County Sheriff Lock Up

Michelle Hardy,
Dental Aide
Ionia County Sheriff Lock Up

Nancy Rodriguez,
Senior Clerk and Ionia County Sheriff Terry Jungel

Kay Keeler,
RN, Reformatory Nurse

Florence Taylor,
Campus Security
Michigan State University

1969
SMP Expands Staff
Working their way through prison are Mrs. George F. Stephens of Stockbridge and Mrs. Mary Lou Joseph, 23d Max. The first feminine corrections officers at Southern Michigan Prison presently staff the visitor’s desk, and the room in which visitor and inmate meet. They also can frisk women visitors if necessary.

That’s about as far as they can go within the structure which houses approximately 4,300 men.

Mrs. Stephens and Mrs. Joseph started their pioneering jobs in June, but did not complete their training until the first of August. That included shotgun, rifle and revolver practice. But they don’t sport guns on duty. A male officer still bears the firearms.

They also witnessed films and lectures pertaining to psychology and riot prevention and control. The defense tactics training was skimpy. “They weren’t used to training girls,” Mrs. Joseph said, so she and her partner mostly watched demonstrations of judo.

The two think they may pick up on this when future female corrections officers are prepared. Plans call for six women in the institution...

At present, bright summery dresses are the costume of the day, determined by the individual’s taste. But a uniform will replace it, as soon as a design can be selected. There aren’t many firms which manufacture such apparel for women, prison officials discovered when they began checking...

Reprinted from the Jackson Citizen Patriot, August 1969.

...At the state level Vergil Pinckney, former director of residential care programs for the Michigan Department of Social Services, wrote of Barbara Hall Watt, superintendent of the Training School for Girls at Adrian: “Her warm appreciation of the importance of each individual and her transformation of the program from custodial care to rehabilitation were most noteworthy.” Watt later became director of the Bureau of Group Care Services in Michigan and was a major force in developing that state’s progressive philosophy toward juveniles in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Reprinted from Corrections Today, August 1992 (American Corrections Association) “Looking Back on 200 Years of Valuable Contributions” by Joann B. Morton.

Pamela K. Withrow was a pioneer in Michigan’s adult prison system. She was the first woman to head a prison camp for men, in 1978, and the first woman superintendent of a male prison (the Michigan Dunes Correctional Facility, near Holland), in 1983. She graduated from Michigan State University.

Sally Ross,
Corrections Officer, “Wall Post”

Geraldine Butler,
Assistant Deputy Warden for Programs

Charmane Hatcher,
Deputy Sheriff, County Lock Up

Roberta Brickley,
Resident Unit Officer, Corrections

Denise Ingran,
Resident Unit Officer, Corrections

Diane Johnson,
Housing Officer, County Lock Up

Margaret Jones,
School Teacher, with prisoner

Teri Austin,
Hearing Investigator, Corrections

The contributions of pioneering women in the field of corrections are now recognized as vital to the effectiveness of every correctional agency. Women have been particularly successful in reducing violence in prisons.

Denise Quarles was one of two women probation officers who were the first to be assigned a male felon caseload, in 1977. She forged new ground at the maximum security Marquette Branch Prison and as administrator of the male reception center at the Riverside Correctional Facility in Ionia. She is now a regional prison administrator, responsible for the operations and budget of ten prisons in southeast Michigan.

Ruth Bare was the first woman to serve as an administrative assistant to a warden of a male correctional facility. She began her career in Detroit in 1967 as a parole officer. In 1976 she began work with the low-risk furlough program which later became Wayne County’s electronic tethering program. Since 1980 she has served as Deputy Regional Administrator.

Delores Tripp, J.D. was the first woman appointed to the Michigan Parole Board, in 1977. She had been an administrative law judge to the Youth Parole and Review Board, after two years as a hearing officer. From 1977 until she left in 1982, for the first time women filled many positions with the Department of Corrections from female corrections officers to wardens.

“The period of change was quite stressful for all concerned - staff and prisoners alike. These changes also coincided with the beginning of the huge upsurge in prison population.” -Delores Tripp, Michigan Parole Board

Connie Baldwin is the Immediate Past President of the Michigan Correction Association, the 9th woman to preside. She started out as a probation officer in 1967 and is currently a manager for the Wayne County Felony Probation Services. She holds a Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Detroit.

Lynn A. Green, MD, MPH was the first female to administer the Michigan Department of Corrections’ Health Care Bureau in 1985. The Bureau provides for the health care needs of over 38,000 prisoners in 37 facilities. She is trained as a Pediatrician and holds a Master’s Degree in Public Health.

Virginia Lauzun, M.D., was the first woman doctor for the Michigan Department of Corrections, in 1974. Many women first entered the criminal justice system through health services. As director of the State Prisons of Southern Michigan infirmary, she was responsible for 5,596 inmates.

Gloria Richardson was appointed Superintendent of the State Women’s Correctional Facility in 1977. She held a Master’s Degree in Social Work and had an extensive career with juveniles at the Girls Training School in Adrian and the Maxey Boys Training School.

Tekla Miller was the first woman to be hired in Oakland County Circuit Court Probation in 1971. In 1980 women prisoners could not earn incentive good time on public works projects because they did not have access to corrections camp where men normally can earn this type of good time by working in state parks and forests. Tekla Miller was put in charge of Camp Pontiac at Clarkston, the state’s first women’s correction camp, when the court ordered equal treatment for the women.

Theda Y. Bishop, Ph.D., began her career in criminal justice in 1955 when she was one of seven women hired on the Detroit Police Department. She is renowned for her work in establishing the Wayne County Restitution Program and for helping to establish schools of criminology throughout the U.S. She is a Certified Social Worker and Marriage Counselor and is the first woman to hold a Ph.D. in criminal justice in the United States. She also held the position of Deputy Director of Pre Commitment Services.

Gloria J. Smith, D.D.S., was the first woman to manage the Michigan Department of Corrections’ Statewide Dental Services Program. The Bureau provides dental services for approximately 42,000 prisoners in 39 facilities. She was the first female dentist hired to work for the Department of Corrections in the State of Michigan in 1984.

To succeed in a criminal justice system career takes professional competence through training, a positive attitude, self-esteem and confidence.

Murlene McKinnon is a consultant/trainer who deals with such issues as “Team Building for Police Managers”.

Claudia House Morcum is a judge of the Wayne County Circuit Court. In the 1960’s she traveled to Mississippi to organize legal services for civil rights workers and the voter registration effort. She was the founding Director of the Wayne County Neighborhood Legal Services in 1966. She is an Honoree in the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame.

Virginia Nordby, an attorney, was principal drafter of the Michigan Sexual Conduct Code now adopted by 28 states. As a member of the Michigan Women’s Commission she championed the review of Michigan statutes for gender based differences and application. She is an Honoree in the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame.

Jane P. White, as Director of the Lansing Community College Criminal Justice and Law Center and Police Academy, was visited by Kitty Dukakais in 1992. Jane White is currently the Associate Director of the National Center for Community Policing, School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University.

Merry Morash is the Director of the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University and the only woman in charge of a Criminal Justice Ph.D. program in the nation.

Jan BenDor holds a degree in social psychiatry. She became known as the “Founding Mother of the Rape Crisis Center” movement in Michigan. She helped to legitimize the treatment and prevention of sexual assault through the centers and legislation. She is an Honoree in the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame.

Cathy Klintworth is Executive Director of the Michigan Sheriffs Association.

Barbara Lee, U.S. Marshal for the Western District, accepted the “District of the Year” Award for 1996 from Chief Judge Richard Enslen of the Federal Court of Western Michigan and from U.S. Senator Carl Levin.