Female Mounties recall breaking barrier

Mounties marked the anniversary Wednesday of the day women joined the ranks of one of the last police forces in Canadato tear down its gender barrier.

On Sept. 16, 1974,an all-female troop of 32 recruits began training at the RCMP academy in Regina. The cadets ranged in age from 19 to 29.

'They had us carrying our guns in our handbags.' Retired RCMP officer Cheryl Joyce

The training ended 24 weeks later, and the women were sworn in as constables on March 3, 1975.

Some of those women are still with the force. They, along with womenwho have have retired, gathered Wednesday at the training depot to recall their pioneering efforts to change the role of women in the RCMP.

"There were a lot of skeptics that [said] women wouldn't be able to do the job," Cheryl Joyce, a retired RCMP officer, told CBC News.

Even basic police equipment was different for women in those days, said Joyce, who was a trainer for the force.

"Initially, they had us carrying our guns in our handbags."

In time, things changed. The original all-female troop included Beverley Busson, who rose to commissioner in December 2006 the top job in the RCMP.

"It's amazing changes over 35 years when it comes to women's roles in society," said Busson, now a special adviser to the federal minister responsible for the RCMP. Busson is also a member of the RCMP Reform Implementation Council, an agency created to address a long list of concerns with how the force operates.

The RCMP says the force is reaching out to a new generation of women with targeted recruitment drives. One in five Mounties now isawoman, and internal surveys have shown many of them don't feel they are treated equally.

As recently as March, RCMP in Saskatchewan were under scrutiny for the handling of a harassment complaint involving a female officer and a male colleague.

William Elliott, the current RCMP commissioner, who never attended the training academy as a cadet but came to the post from the senior echelons of the federal public service, said improvements are still needed.

"If we had more female officers at senior ranks, I think that would strengthen the force," he said.