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Valerie Redshaw, author of a history of women in the New Zealand Police, was a London bobby when the swinging 60s dawned. Becoming a New Zealand policewoman in 1962 was a big culture shock.

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VALERIE REDSHAW's beat in London was trendy Chelsea in the era of Mary Quant and at a time of goodwill toward the British constabulary, women included. It was a wonderful time to be a London bobby, she says.

"Being in the front row at royal occasions, people banning the bomb and sitting down protesting in Whitehall."

She still remembers, though, the awful job of having to remove remains of a body off the underground line at South Kensington. "A woman had thrown herself under a train, and picking up her handbag with photos of children . . . that was sad."

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Women had been an established part of the British force since 1914 and she could hardly believe how different things were after she was sent on an undercover mission -- she won't say what -- to New Zealand, married a New Zealander and became the only policewoman trained in New Zealand in 1962, and one of about 20 policewoman nationally.

Valerie left the beat long ago and now works as national education officer for the Royal Federation of New Zealand Justices, the national organisation for Justices of the Peace. But the history of women in New Zealand policing has always intrigued her and her book, Tact and Tenacity: New Zealand Woman in Policing (Grantham House/ New Zealand Police, hb $49.99), produced in association with the police, has just been published. She is part of the history

When she trained in 1962 there were "the beginnings of the knock on the door of equality", but there were senior police officers in Wellington who believed the police force was not the appropriate place for women "and there was still the idea of protecting them".

There were other marked differences from the life she was used to in the London Metropolitan Police. When she was sworn in by the Commissioner of Police at headquarters in Wellington she was struck by the informality. "It was virtually over a tray of tea in his office and he called me by my first name. The Met had 20,000 staff, formality was firmly entrenched, and I had never seen the commissioner in person, let alone had a conversation with him."

There were elements of gender discrimination in the New Zealand police far into the 1980s, she recalls. There were always complaints about the size of woman officers and a concerted effort to enlist "Amazonian" women. "In the 90s that began to change but there were still very few women of rank. What helped was legislation. They had to address equality of employment and opportunity, though women had enjoyed equal pay since the 1960s."

Valerie dropped into policing more on impulse than by design.

She was born on the Isle of Wight -- "and don't you dare say my age. I want to be working when I'm 80"; she studied at university and then went teaching and began to feel she had never Gucci Clutches Bags left the classroom. One day in 1959 her eye was caught by a poster in the London Underground. The handsome policeman in the picture was advertising the (PndStlg)1000 pay she could have. The whole package looked attractive.

She joined 100 women being tested for suitability over one rigorous day and, as the day wore on, more and more disheartened women dropped out. "By the end of the day, there were 11 left and I was in. I work
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