Scotland Yard today launched a campaign to recruit more female officers to the Met while celebrating 100 years of women in policing.
The Strong campaign will highlight role models, including the first black female police officer Sislin Fay Allen, who joined in 1968.
Met Commissioner Cressida Dick, the first woman to lead the force, said in the long term she wanted 50 per cent of the force to be women, comparedwith the current 27 per cent.
Ms Dick joined about 40 female officers outside Scotland Yard to show how women now filled every rank in the Met, apart from deputy commissioner.
The force is particularly keen for black and ethnic minority women to apply, revealing that they make up only three per cent of the number of officers.
Assistant Commissioner Helen Ball, head of professionalism, said: “I think women may not realise the range of roles they can perform in policing. I think we still have an image of being a male-dominated profession. People don’t realise men and women work together in the Met in great harmony. There are fantastic jobs within policing in London that women can do really well.”
The campaign was launched 100 years to the day that the then-Commissioner Sir Cecil Macready officially announced the Met would employ female officers, known then as the Women Patrols.
At first contracts were issued on an “experimental” basis and the new officers did not have the power of arrest. They were accompanied by male officers “for their protection”. Two years earlier a reporter who asked a Scotland Yard official: “Is there any possibility of women being employed as police constables?” was told: “No, not even if the war lasts 50 years.”
In total there are 7,881 women officers in the Met, with about 387 in senior roles of inspector and above.
Launching the campaign, Ms Dick said: “I want to appeal to all women to consider having a career in the Met. Being a police officer is challenging, but it is rewarding and you get to make a difference to so many.
“Today, we have launched our female-specific recruitment campaign and there is no better time to be a woman in the Met.”
