Saw a story earlier today over in The New York Times that Gertrude Schimmel, the first female chief in the New York Police Department, had died in Manhattan at the age of 96.
The NYT obituary for Schimmel details her fascinating life, focusing primarily on her lengthy career with the NYPD that lasted from her joining as officer in 1940 and retiring in 1981. She’d been on the force for two decades when she and another policewoman took the city to court to challenge discriminatory promotional policies and won.
She was elevated to sergeant and then lieutenant in the 1960s, then eventually captain in the early 1970s.