Too busy to retire
Val Redshaw thinks she might have another crack at retiring when she’s 80 but in the meantime, this indefatigable policewoman, teacher, trainer, Justice of the Peace, writer and grandmother of seven doesn’t turn down a challenge.
She talks passionately about her recently-finished book on the history of women in the New Zealand police force. Representing 14 years of interviewing and writing, fitted in around full-time work, it was to have been her retirement project.
“It’s a fascinating story and the interviews were an emotional experience, as the women had to be persuaded to talk about some of the bad things that had happened to them and the resistance they had met in the police force,” she says.
Her story starts with the policemen’s wives in the goldfields, who were employed to search female prisoners and do domestic chores. It moves on to the highly-respected ‘matrons’ of the 1890s who had quasi-police jobs such as caring for prisoners and investigating complaints of cruelty against children. It was not until 1941 that the first 10 policewomen were accepted for training in New Zealand.
Ms Redshaw says even then, people did not see a role for women in the police force, apart from care-giving, and women tended to be sidelined into typing and clerical duties - a situation which persisted until very recently.
“Into the 1980s, women were not recruited into the police force if they were married or had children and it is only in the last five to seven years that there has been a huge improvement in attitudes towards policewomen. That’s why I couldn’t stop the story in 2001 – by taking it up to the present, it ends on a happy note.”
She says the book, which will be published next year, is a tribute to the persistence of the pioneer policewomen and includes chapters on police wives and non-sworn female staff, as their contribution “can’t be left out”.
British-born Ms Redshaw joined the police in London after a short-lived teaching career.
“I loved it and couldn’t bear to have a day off in case I missed anything. I was able to get through the ranks by doing exams and, after five years, had the opportunity to come to New Zealand to do an undercover job,” she says.
With time on her hands, she did New Zealand police training - the only woman at the police college at the time – and worked in Auckland before going back to Britain.
However, when she returned to live in rural New Zealand with her Kiwi husband, she was unable to return to the force because of her marital status. Her life took another turn and, in between having her six children, she returned to teaching - enjoying it this time.
With permanent teaching jobs in Tauranga hard to find, she accepted a lectureship in education at Massey University in Palmerston North. Here she was brought back into contact with the police when a visiting American police officer, brought in to develop a diploma in police studies, suggested she do the diploma.
By 1990, she was training police recruits herself and moved to police national headquarters, where she managed the police training and development curriculum. With little opportunity for upward mobility in the police force, she applied for a secondment to New Zealand Customs Service, where she had overall responsibility for strategic development.
“I absolutely loved it and could actually make things happen – it also gave me a good knowledge of the regulatory control area.”
Barely two weeks after retiring from Customs, she went to East Timor to develop a strategic plan for the Timorese Border Service, in cooperation with New Zealand Foreign Affairs and the United Nations.
Although conditions were rough, Ms Redshaw says she didn’t think much about the dangers of the job until she was awarded the East Timor Medal and the Operational Services Medal on her return to New Zealand.
In her current job as national education officer for New Zealand’s Justices of the Peace, she is responsible for delivering training programmes, producing educational material and keeping abreast of legislative changes. Having been a JP herself for over 30 years, she still witnesses documents, provides JP services for the district court and participates in the electoral process.
Ms Redshaw is on the board of the Open Polytechnic and the committee of the police museum, is a member of the IPA, which she joined in Britain in 1961, and helps fundraise for Wellington’s Downtown Community Ministry.
So, what does she do in her spare time? She says her grandchildren keep her busy and that writing, collecting rare books, painting, embroidery (“although I’ve got a heap of unfinished symphonies and daren’t start anything new”) and gardening (“I love my garden, but I weed with Roundup”) fill in the gaps.
Val Redsahaw and Minister of Police Annette King