We speak to Penny Harrington, the first female police chief of a major American city, about fighting her way through the ranks. Run, Bambi, Run is an Apple Original podcast, produced by Campside Media. Listen and follow on Apple Podcasts. https://apple.co/RunBambiRun
Hi, everyone.
It's Vanessa with a bonus episode of Run Bambi, run an Apple original podcast produced by Campside Media.
This episode is about women and policing.
So american women tried to beat down the door and become cops for a long, long time in this country.
But the closest they got for centuries was a few women here and there in the 18 hundreds being allowed to basically help out.
These were Quaker women who were allowed to volunteer at womens prisons.
Then in the 19 hundreds, male cops finally said, okay, well hire a couple of women.
But I mean, like, really, a couple.
Police departments would occasionally have women do work they saw as womens work.
Female officers acted as decoys during prostitution arrests or put diapers on the kids of people whod been arrested.
I mean, the male cops werent going to do that.
Penny Harrington is one of the most significant, if not the most significant, female trailblazer in policing.
Born in 1942, Penny did way more than women ever had in policing in this country.
In fact, Penny rose through the ranks to become the first female police chief in the entire United States.
And it all started when she was a teenager.
When I was in high school, there weren't very many careers for women.
You could be a teacher, or you could be a secretary, or you could get married and stay home and take care of children.
I didn't want to do any of those.
And one day they said that anybody that wanted to go down to the police department for the day and learn about what the police do.
And I was the only girl that signed up, and it just so happened that they had a sworn woman police officer, and she spent the day with me.