Examples of how policing has improved in relation to women, particularly victims of sex assaults and domestic abuse, were brought to the attention of the club as they marked their fortieth anniversary.
Guest speaker Assistant Chief Constable Laura Nicholson, the only woman of her rank in Hampshire Constabulary, said that policing “is essentially about keeping people safe.”
They had made significant progress in the way they dealt with women but, in her view, they could always do better.
She recalled having to deal with her first rape and domestic abuse cases, in the late eighties, when it became clear how little support there was for women victims and how little training there was for police officers dealing with such incidents.
“Today Hampshire has a stand-alone group that deals with rape and sex assaults and offers support for victims.”
She talked of the impressive variety of posts she had held since joining the Metropolitan Police in 1987, ranging from her early years in ethnically diverse Southall in West London to working with the country’s most senior police officers commissioners Sir Ian, now Lord, Blair and with Sir Paul Stephenson at particularly challenging periods for the Met – when inquiries were being held into the deaths of Stephen Lawrence and Jean Charles de Menezes.
ACC Nicholson said she would be leaving Hampshire this summer to work in counter terrorism and organised crime.
Other speakers at the event were Councillor Susan Bayford, mayor of Fareham, and Penny Bartlett, regional president of Southern England Soroptimists.
All three speakers complimented the club on their achievements over four decades.
Soroptimists attended from a number of other clubs in the region including Southampton, Chichester, Winchester and Woking.