On Sept. 16, 1974, 32 women from across Canada made history as the first female officers sworn into the RCMP, forming Troop 17.
Now, 50 years later, those with the RCMP are reflecting on how far women in policing has come and where to go moving forward.
Commanding officer Rhonda Blackmore has been serving with the RCMP for more than 25 years, helping pave the way for diverse recruitment which she believes is crucial.
“Women bring a different dynamic to policing,” Blackmore said. “We have to be representative of the population we police.
When we have a victim who may be female they are often interested in speaking to someone who is female because they’re just more comfortable.”
Jodi Ann Eskritt, the RCMP Historical Collections Unit curator said it was Troop 17 who really broke the glass ceiling.
“Troop 17… their arrival here, their training here, their graduation, the women who then went out into the field… all that was the beginning of a whole series of diversifying the force,” Eskritt said.
Troop 17 became the first group of women to take the oath to become regular members of the RCMP and begin their training at Depot, the RCMP’s training academy in Regina, Saskatchewan.
Eskritt explained how there was a lot of concern about how women were going to be accommodated into the existing training program, including if they would stay in separate dorms.
“They were concerned with how women would march,” Eskritt said. “They were concerned about the wiggle women have when they walk that that might make it impossible for them to march. There were concerns about the physical fitness program and in particular, defensive training and those sorts of physical requirements for the job.
And the interesting thing is with all the concern, Troop 17 proved to be the best troop on drill in the years they were here.”
She said there were many lessons learned in the early days of training the group, that continue to help shape things today.
“Those members were the first to go through that process, to break that ground and to start that path that others have continued to follow,” Eskritt explained.
Today, approximately one fifth of the RCMP’s police officers are women. Blackmore said the RCMP is always pushing for women to join the force.
“If you’re interested in that day-to-day, something different all the time and not mundane or routine, this is definitely a job for you,” Blackmore said. “That rewarding piece of a career where you know at the end of the day you can really feel like you helped someone.”