Why did female police officers in the UK have the word Woman put in front of their rank eg Woman Inspector Smith? When did this stop? Did other civil defence agencies do this? What about the military?
This doesn’t answer your question, but the Los Angeles Police Department still has a “Policewoman” rank with, I believe, one woman still holding that rank. Anecdotally, it is a holdover from the less enlightened time when people still said, “ooh – look! It’s a policeWOMAN.” Incidentally, the official uniform for the policewoman includes a skirt, whereas all LAPD officers (regardless of gender) wear pants as part of the official uniform.
Pat Hays, Chicago’s last officer to hold the title of “Policewoman”, retired in 2001 after serving 35 years on the force.
Firstly, there is no such rank as Woman Inspector (if there was such a position I’d be the first in line to apply for it!).
Official Ranks of the UK Police
Of course, a female police officer is informally referred to as a policewoman. There’s no harm in this, it’s purely descriptive.
Woops! My profuse apologies. I’ve just noted that you used the past tense! Ignore me!