Policewomen in Portugal in the Twentieth Century: an Unfulfilled Prophecy

Abstract

This article examines the main impasses to the integration of women into one of Portugal’s main police institutions, the Public Security Police (PSP),using a socio-historical reading. Research data shows that although allied to the pluralization of the institutional image, presented in rebranding campaigns to indicate the police force’s feminization, investment in female recruitment was a prophecy that was not completely realized by police institutions and democratic governments. While at first police women were associated with specific and support tasks, they were later seen as dispensable in policing domestic violence. I argue that the sexist orientation of the institution and the state, which combined the idea of modernity of the force with female recruitment, indirectly held women responsible for an inconclusive policy.

Portugal twentieth century; Urban Police; Policewomen; Policing Marketing; Professional Careers; Professional Demographics