14. This Heroic Cop Was Sent After Dangerous Criminals, Armed Only With a Handbag
As a nurse, Lillian Armfield had worked in an insane asylum, and was exposed to Sydney’s darker side. In 1915, the city formed a Women’s Police Force – the first of its kind in Australia – and encouraged nurses and asylum workers to apply. Lillian fit the bill on both counts, so she signed up. Despite numerous hurdles placed in her way – gender discrimination and sexism were orders of magnitude worse back then – Lillian overcame them and soldiered on. She became Australia’s first female detective, and worked for over thirty years fighting crime and busting criminals.
When she was hired as a detective, Lillian had to sign an indemnity, freeing the police department from responsibility and liability for her safety and welfare. This, despite the fact that she was sent after some of Australia’s most dangerous criminals, armed with nothing more than a handbag. Unlike her male colleagues, Lillian was not only denied a weapon and uniform, she was also denied overtime, recompense for work-related expenses, and worker’s comp for injuries suffered on the job. The final insult came at the end of her three-decade career when, again unlike her male colleagues, she was denied a pension.