Agenda: A bright future ahead of women in the police service

Back in 1915 as the nation's men left to fight in the First World War, there was both a necessity and an opportunity for women to move into roles previously considered unsuitable for the "fairer sex" and policing was one such profession.

In those early days, however, women officers dealt mainly with prostitutes and children, and women generally were not allowed to carry handcuffs or truncheons, or to work a night shift: all unthinkable today.

Some women officers were not even given the power of arrest and strict rules stopped them from progressing up the ranks. Getting married meant a swift exit from the police service, as home-making was considered a higher priority for women.

In Scotland, Dundee lays claim to one of the very first female officers in Jean Thomson, born in 1881 in Lochee. Today, a plaque on Tayside Division's main office celebrates her achievements.

This pioneering woman patrolled the streets but was only allowed to enter pubs if accompanied by a male officer. In 1922, the then Chief Constable of Dundee City was forced to deny publicly he had a woman on his staff.

Women officers continued to face stricter rules than their male colleagues and barriers were put in place to prevent them being promoted or taking particular roles. The service then sought to control and limit the ambitions of women officers rather than to value and empower them, but over time society and policing have both changed.

Whilst progress had been made since Jean Thomson's time, it is in the last 20 years that the numbers of women joining - and importantly remaining in - the service have grown significantly.

We are now at a tipping point, with 29 per cent of all officers in Police Scotland and 20 per cent of promoted officers being women. By any measure of equality, policing in Scotland compares favourably with the private sector and other emergency services.

By contrast, women make up only 9.7 per cent of our armed services and fewer than 1 per cent of senior officers in the armed services are female, compared to 16 per cent of senior officers in Police Scotland.

I am particularly proud that almost a third of our chief officers are now women and that our successors are coming up through the ranks.

That change for the better has been achieved by a variety of means: through dedicated positive action by Police Scotland, led by our Chief Constable Sir Stephen House, and building on what had been done in legacy forces; through much hard work by our police staff associations and the Scottish Women's Development Forum to improve gender balance; and most importantly, through the talent, determination and inspiration of those pioneering women whose achievements we are celebrating this year.

Of course, there is always more to be done to ensure all our services are delivered by officers who are representative of the communities we serve, whether that's through local policing, our operational support or specialist crime investigation.

For example, we now actively encourage applications from women officers for promotion and for specialist posts and work with our staff associations to address areas of under-representation. Having invested in recruiting and training women officers, we need to retain their skills and experience and work is underway to ensure that they - and their male colleagues too - can combine a police career with family life and the caring responsibilities we all have at different stages in our lives.

Police Scotland is marking this centenary by celebrating the role of women in policing past, present and future with a series of events locally across Scotland. I am so proud to be able to say that today there is no policing role or rank which women cannot attain. We all have a responsibility to those women police officers who made this possible, and for those who come after us, to make sure the next 100 years of policing make us even more representative of the communities we serve.

Rose Fitzpatrick is Deputy Chief Constable of Police Scotland.