ABSTRACT
From the consolidation of the Queensland Police in 1864 until 1931 there were no women in the force, despite the appointment of policewomen in all other Australian states during World War One. The election of a woman MP gave leverage to the action taken by women's groups, and two policewomen were eventually appointed in the face of union opposition and a resistant police administration. Social upheaval in Brisbane during World War Two allowed for an increase in numbers and formal organisation into a Police Women Section. Full powers were achieved in 1965, although women remained in an extremely restricted role. In terms of the aspirations of the women police movement, the establishment of women in the Queensland Police was a pyrrhic victory. Their limited numbers and separate establishment confirmed their marginal and inferior status. This study highlights the contradictory effects of the employment of women police, including the problematic nature of the use of women to police their own gender. At the policy level, the study demonstrates the need for strong anthdiscrimination legislation to curb the destructive effects of discretionary decision making in employment, particularly in male dominated fields such as policing. It also confirms dominant themes identified in the development of women police in other countries. Dogged resistance forced women to resort to a variety of adaptive strategies, and made for a slow and complex process of infiltration of police ranks.
