The Spinster and Her Enemies - Feminish

‘THE SORT OF THING THAT MIGHT HAPPEN TO ANY MAN’
the case at a 1890 meeting of the Moral Reform Union, a strongly
feminist social purity organisation. Speaking of sexual abuse
cases she said, ‘Every case in the Police News, as reported in
the press, told the same story,—men making and executing the
laws, and women tried without one woman to represent them.’ 23
She told the story of the maintenance case of a 15-year-old
village girl. The girl lived with her uncle whom she cited as the
father of her child though he denied it. The court was full of
‘jockeys, grooms and low village boys’ and the only women
present were the girl, Miss Muller, the girl’s mother and an
elderly friend. The judge ordered the court to be cleared of
women though Miss Muller stayed. She commented: ‘As a
woman was not tried by her peers,—that is, she was only tried
by a jury of men—there ought always to be one or two of her
own sex in court to give her their moral support.’ 24
In a pamphlet published after the passage of the 1922 Act it
is clear that no progress had been made. The writer attacks the
policy of clearing the court of women in sexual abuse cases and
states, ‘There must be women in court. If tried before a jury
there must be some women jurors.’ 25 She explains that justice
could not be expected of men by describing an incident in which,
‘two men coming out from such a trial were overheard saying
to a woman who deplored that there had been no conviction,
“What nonsense! Men should not be punished for a thing like
that. It doesn’t harm the child.” ’ 26
A concerted movement to get a women’s police force began
in 1913 on the initiative of the National Council for Women.
The Women’s Police Volunteers formed by Nina Boyle of the
Women’s Freedom League were established in 1915. Their
original purpose was to deal with the protection of women and
children. Their use was quickly converted in garrison towns to
one quite opposite from the original intention. They were used
to police women and keep them off the streets after curfew to
protect soldiers. This corruption of the function of the women
police volunteers led to a serious split in the movement for a
women’s police force. Some women were able to go along with
the wartime function. The Women’s Freedom League would
not. The first official body of women police was appointed in
1918 and foundations for a service for the whole country were
laid in 1920 by the Baird Committee which recommended that
there should be women police in all thickly populated districts.
The numbers of women police grew until 1922 when they were
cut as a result of government economies under Geddes. The
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