Celebrating the Women of the Department of Justice

The following post appears courtesy of the DOJ library staff.

Women have always played a major part in the Department of Justice and have contributed to every aspect of the department’s operations. In recent decades, women have moved from staff positions to positions at the very top of the department. The culmination of this evolution was the appointment of Attorney General Janet Reno who served in the Clinton Administration from 1993-2001.

These changes did not take place overnight. If one were to survey Department of Justice directories prior to 1970, it would be very rare to find women serving at the level of Assistant Attorney General. Starting with the 1970s, this situation changed slowly, and then dramatically in the 1990s.

March is Women’s History Month. To celebrate the month we’ll highlight some of the women who have risen to the top leadership of the Justice Department. These women provide wonderful examples of the exemplary service women of the department have made, and continue to make, to the United States. Their service and dedication has helped secure the safety of our nation and promote justice for all.

Annette Abbott Adams: Assistant Attorney General (1920 – 1921)

Annette Abbott Adams (b. March 27, 1877 – d. October 26, 1956) was the first female Assistant Attorney General. Adams was also the first woman to sit on the California Supreme Court, having been appointed by special assignment for one case.

Adams attended Chico State Normal School and the University of California Berkeley, receiving her Bachelor of Law in 1904. She was the one of the first women to graduate from UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall, and was admitted to the California state bar in 1912. Thereafter, she campaigned for Woodrow Wilson in California. After he was elected, she was appointed Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of California from 1914-1919. In 1920 she was appointed the first female Assistant Attorney General of the United States and held the term for one year before resigning in 1921.

Adams’ other achievements included a successful law practice after her appointment; being appointed presiding judge of the California Court of Appeal, 3rd District in Sacramento; and winning election to a twelve-year term on that court. In 1952, Adams retired for health reasons, and passed away in 1956. Adams’ legacy nonetheless broke barriers for women in the legal profession, and established a precedent for women achieving high political office.

A Look at Women Police Writers

March is Women’s History Month. Nearly 600 state and local police officers in the Untied States have written books. And, twenty-one of those police officers are women. Like their male counterparts, they have written fiction, autobiographies, academic texts and even poetry. Interestingly enough, the most successful writer of romantic fiction is a retired male motorcop. Put the motorcop aside for the moment and let’s take a brief tour of the history of women police officers as writers.

Women in Policing

There is some disagreement about who should be thought of as the first women police officer in the United States. In 1910, Alice Stebbin Wells joined the Los Angeles Police Department and was the first woman to be called a “Policewoman.” However, in 1905, Lola Baldwin was hired by Portland Police Department (Oregon), given somewhat limited police powers and put in charge of group of social workers.
It has been said that Baldwin was the first woman to have sworn authority. Still earlier, in 1893, Mary Owens was given the rank of Policeman in the Chicago Police Department. While Owens worked in the department 30 years, she had been given this title and job as the widow of a slain officer. At that time in our history, lacking today’s survivor benefits, some organizations took care of the police family by providing widows with jobs within the department.

READ ON

http://www.police-writers.com/look_women_police_writers.html

400 Police Authors and Women’s History Month

Police-Writers.com, a website dedicated to listing state and local police officers who have authored books added three women police officers. Coinciding with National Women’s History month, the 400th police writer is a women.

Volitta Fritsche is a detective sergeant with the Morgan County Sheriff’s Department. In addition to her 18 years with the Morgan County Sheriff’s Department (Indiana), she has an additional 8 years experience in the criminal justice system having worked as a dispatcher, corrections officer and court reporter. She has written two books, Deadly Decisions which is the story of a mother’s search for her missing son; and, a children’s book, Genuine.

Donna Wudyka was hired by the Detroit Police Department in 1987. She retired on a duty-related disability in 1997. Donna Wudyka’s book is Shattered Badges, Broken Hearts: An Officer's Nightmare. The book is the true-life account of a January 1996 officer-involved-shooting that claimed the life of police officer Patrick Prohm. According to Donna Wudyka, her book, “describes the aftermath of the shooting, and the hell that the City of Detroit put my partner and I through: Injustice, discrimination, harassment, numerous violations of the union contract, embarrassment, and mental anguish. My partner and I thought the incident was traumatic enough. Wait until you see what came after it.”

In 1992, Maureen Tracy joined the San Diego County Sheriff's Department as a deputy sheriff. She is the 400th author to be added to the list of state and local police officers who have written books.

After the academy Maureen Tracy worked in a correctional facility and was ultimately transferred to a specialized unit. Her book, The Department, is an account of her experiences on the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. Maureen Tracy stated about her book, “One fall morning I received the phone call that changed my life. In turn of personal traumatic events I made a mistake on the job. However, despite the mitigating circumstances discovered through the Internal Affairs investigation, I found myself on the chopping block and headed toward termination. Was my mistake immoral? Yes. Were the actions of many people on this Department immoral? Absolutely. This is a story about the "good" of my job and the love I had for it. It is about the "bad" in the harassment, animosity and jealousy I experienced. This is the "truth" as to why I left the Department.”

The March newsletter from Hi Tech Criminal Justice will feature an article about the 21 women police officers who are currently listed on Police-Writers.com

Police-Writers.com now hosts 400 police officers (representing 170 police departments) and their 862 books in six categories, there are also listings of United States federal law enforcement employees turned authors, international police officers who have written books and civilian police personnel who have written books.