Controlling Women
The Untold Story of Britain’s First Female Police Force
A compelling history of the women who started their own police force in 1914—as war, social upheaval and gender injustice gripped the UK.
Description
Violence against women is out of control. The conviction rate for rape is so low that most survivors think it pointless to report it, or live to regret doing so. Ruthless trafficking gangs run a flourishing criminal sex trade. Women have no confidence in the Metropolitan Police. The year is 1914.
As the First World War began, a group of British campaigners founded the Women Police Volunteers, hoping to protect the vulnerable both from crime and from patriarchal policing and justice. They included a bishop’s widow close to the establishment, a militant suffragette with criminal convictions, a wealthy benefactress, and a court reporter born in the workhouse to a single mother. Controlling Women follows their incredible journey—from its inspirational beginnings through all of its troubling turns.
Sandra Hempel’s remarkable narrative is both a vivid snapshot of Britain at a time of rapid change, and a rich tapestry of ethics and emotions among her fascinating characters. Navigating new worlds of political ideals and institutional compromise, these bold, complex women made history, despite constant challenges from within and without— and they show us just how far we have to go in the fight for women’s justice.
Author(s)
Sandra Hempel is a former Times journalist, who has also written for The Guardian, the Daily Mail and other national media. Her previous books are the award-winning history The Medical Detective, and a Victorian ‘true murder mystery’, The Inheritor’s Powder, which was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week.
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