Eighty years ago today - in 1941 - ten women entered police training - the first women in New Zealand to do so.
The National Council of Women had been lobbying for women to be allowed to join the New Zealand police since the 1930s
It wasn't until the workforce faced pressures due to the second World War that it happened.
They were expected to be being 25 and 40 years old, and unmarried, or widowed.
Valerie Redshaw has documented womens contribution to the service - in her 2007 book Tact and Tenacity: New Zealand Women in Policing.
Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
