The recent appointment of Donna Adams as Tasmania’s first female police com­missioner is testimony to our progressive maturity towards gender equality in high levels of governance.

In the local ABC TV program of the early seventies Status Men, then Deputy Commissioner Eric Knowles was asked of the possibility of a future female commissioner and the audience erupted into laughter. Mr Knowles, ahead of his time, reacting as if seemingly perceiving the audience reaction as condescend­ing towards female officers, graciously refused to rule it out.

The Tasmanian Police Museum has cited that Kate Campbell, aged 32, was the first female to be sworn in as a Tasmanian police officer in 1917. Groundbreaking for the time, and then acting Commissioner EP Andrewartha (a man) was reported as having been advocating for more women in the service. Shortly after, Maud Hughes and Maud Cross were sworn in.

Vera Webberley, after 17 years of service in 1960 with then only 10 female officers statewide, was the first woman promoted to Sergeant. She retired 1971 unfortunately before equal pay and full integration of women to police duties.

The first woman promoted to Inspector in 1978, Beth Ashlin, was cited as having paved the way for women. Joining in 1956, she first succeeded Vera Webberley as Sergeant in 1976. Passing away in 2016, many of her colleagues remem­bered her fondly with the greatest respect for her strong advocacy for stamping out discrimination, for pay parity and equal training and promotion opportunities for female officers.

Initially female roles focused on areas such as those affecting women and children. The uniforms included skirts, court shoes and handbags, even into the 1980’s. Gender neutral, more practical operational attire is now normal, reserv­ing the dress uniform for more formal occasions such as VIP visits and court appearances.

Early fictional depiction of female police officers exemplified this. Crawfords tele­vision police procedural drama Homicide introduced Derani Scarr as Police Woman Helen Hopwood (note the title; not ‘Constable’) and later Patricia Smith, a regular as Police Woman Margaret Stewart in Division 4; both complete with the stereotypical attire and function and rarely seen cuffing a burly male villain.

Conversely, at a public open day at the local police academy during an all female trainee demonstration of the apprehen­sion procedure of a resisting offender, the instructor emphatically stressed to the audience that female officers do the same job as males. This would extend to all specialised areas such as foren­sics, accident investigation, criminal investigation, communications and lay prosecution.

While Christine Nixon in Victoria was the first female to hold a Commissioner’s role in any Australian jurisdiction, the 125 year old Tasmanian Police Service welcomed its first in Donna Adams, embracing the role in what she describes as her ‘’passion for lifelong learning.”

The service now has a large female contingent. The Tasmanian Police Annual report cites that as at June 30, 2022, women made up 515 or 35% of the service’s personnel of 1445, with female incumbents in the following leadership positions: 1 Deputy Commissioner, 2 Commanders, 11 Inspectors and 51 Sergeants.