3.7- 1920s Women in Law Enforcement- the factual and the fictional

1920s Women in Law Enforcement- the factual and the fictional

The real 1920s were a time of incredible change in the face of women’s rights and empowerment in the UK.

Allow me to paint a picture for you.

In 1920, the economy is trying to mend from the first world war. You might be on rations for things like meat and sugar and flour.

Women have had the vote for a whole 2 years. (1918 was the year the first of the laws allowing ladies to vote was introduced) there was enormous social and political opposition to this.

Women in policing, well, that’s a curious story. According to the articles, the first female British police officer was Edith Smith, in 1915. But before that, the force had ‘matrons’- women who helped out with cases surrounding women’s crimes. I imagine, dealing, vastly, with those of violence against women and sexual assault.

Image from Wikipedia: Women in Law Enforcement in the UK

The first female superintendent wasn’t until 1930, Dorothy Peto, a lady of strong social and political status.

There’s a lot I’m glossing over there- equal pay, separation of men and women squads, there were even arrest rights lacking for female officers. Keep in mind, this didn’t get fixed until the 70s. As awful as that might be to consider- I instead choose to focus on the women who, despite the separation, the social, financial and legal restraints, still went into work every day. They knew they had less standing, fewer rights, less respect, but they fought for 50 years under those conditions.

I certainly don’t have that sort of backbone, the women in that era were made of sterner stuff than the gooey marshmellow in me.

When I first started writing the Nightmare Detective, I quickly realized I needed to dig into both the suffrage movements in the UK and the state of female policing before DI Beaumont.  None of my characters are based on real people, except, one. And it’s probably not who you think.

I very much based Anne Montagu on one of the early suffragists. While Rose hardly sees Anne in a white light, it was extremely important to me that the character have a strong background and show that it was women like her who pioneered the landscape for DI Beaumont’s rise in the AOC.

Blending in some magic

When building magic into the real world, nay, any world, you must consider how it would change or effect certain events. In the Myth and Magic world, this is most obvious with Animancy, predominately possessed by women. I had to immediately consider this as one of the strongest points for women’s rights- if women possess the literal magic to fix the human body, it will be one of their strongest pillars for equal pay.

Along comes Anne Montagu, once more, to banner such causes. This is a woman made of pure fire and claws. She’s an old-guard, a champion of women’s empowerment, and her push to these ends has enabled future generations.

Medicine in this alternate world might be a bit behind what we’d expect of the day- after all, who needs penicillin when you can close wounds with willpower, but as with all discoveries of science, discoveries of magic have their downside. Animancy is a potent power that can also be used for ill. Although more on that in my next book, A Study in Shadow.

When to just change the factual into fiction

I knew going into The Nightmare Detective I would need to take Liberties. Liberties, you see, are unavoidable on occasion when dealing with the fantastic. There’s a fine line on realism when you have undead flesh-eating corpses, and succubus brothels in White Chapel.

For me, I wanted a proper sense of the times. Police boxes (little holes in the wall in local areas) mostly disappeared after WW2, transformed into stations, but still appeared before that. People didn’t travel much and parliament was very different to what we see today. Blending these elements into the story help create a sense of the actual places and people.

Tell me about your historical works, the ups and downs! I’d love to hear from you!