About this item
A lively exploration of the struggles faced by women in law enforcement and mystery fiction for the past 175 yearsIn 1910, Alice Wells took the oath to join the all-male Los Angeles Police Department. She wore no uniform, carried no weapon, and kept her badge stuffed in her pocketbook. She wasn't the first or only policewoman, but she became the movement's most visible voice.Police work from its very beginning was considered a male domain, far too dangerous and rough for a respectable woman to even contemplate doing, much less take on as a profession. A policewoman worked outside the home, walking dangerous city streets late at night to confront burglars, drunks, scam artists, and prostitutes. To solve crimes, she observed, collected evidence, and used reason and logic - traits typically associated with men. And most controversially of all, she had a purpose separate from her husband, children, and home. Women who donned the badge faced harassment and discrimination. It would take more than seventy years for women to enter the force as full-fledged officers.Yet within the covers of popular fiction, women not only wrote mysteries but also created female characters that handily solved crimes. Smart, independent, and courageous, these nineteenth- and early twentieth-century female sleuths (including a healthy number created by male writers) set the stage for Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, Sara Paretsky's V. I. Warshawski, Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta, and Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone, as well as TV detectives such as Prime Suspect's Jane Tennison and Law and Order's Olivia Benson. The authors were not amateurs dabbling in detection but professional writers who helped define the genre and competed with men, often to greater success.Pistols and Petticoats tells the story of women's very early place in crime fiction and their public crusade to transform policing. Whether real or fictional, investigating women were nearly always at odds with society. Most women refused to let that stop them, paving the way to a modern professional life for women on the force and in popular culture.
About the Author
Erika Janik is the award-winning author of Odd Wisconsin, A Short History of Wisconsin, Madison: A History of a Model City, Apple: A Global History, and Marketplace of the Marvelous: The Strange Origins of Modern Medicine (Beacon Press, Jan. 2014) . She is the recipient of a 2011 Wisconsin Historical Society Award of Merit for History Writing, 2009 North American Travel Journalists Association award for historical travel writing as well as the 2007 William B. Hesseltine Award. Her work has appeared in many publications, including Smithsonian.com, Mental Floss, The Onion, MyMidwest, Wisconsin Trails magazine, On Wisconsin, and the Wisconsin Magazine of History, as well as on Wisconsin Public Radio. Originally from Redmond, Washington, she now knows more about Wisconsin than she ever thought possible. In her spare time, she's the producer and editor of "Wisconsin Life" at Wisconsin Public Radio.
