Most RCMP officers who make it through the gruelling basic training at 鈥淒epot,鈥� the RCMP boot camp in Regina, have a graduation photo of themselves in full dress uniform of iconic red serge and Stetson hat.

91原创 resident Bonnie Reilly Schmidt doesn鈥檛.

It comes from joining the force back in 1977 when female RCMP officers were a very new thing and were required to dress differently than the men.

They had to wear little pillbox hats with skirts, nylons, and pumps because somebody in authority had decided women officers should look more feminine.

It wasn鈥檛 as awful as the miniskirts inflicted on pioneering policewomen by some other male-dominated police forces back in the 1970s, but it was bad enough.

鈥淚f you have to chase someone in the muck in the prairies, it鈥檚 not workable,鈥� Schmidt says.

The hats, she recalls, tended to get left behind a lot.

They would mysteriously blow off in winds and get accidentally left behind in police cars, she observed.

Despite the sexism, Schmidt, a former plainclothes officer, has fond memories of her 10 years with the force.

鈥淚 really missed the people when I left.鈥�

Now, the 56-year-old former cop is working on a history of women in the force to get her doctor of history degree at Simon Fraser University.

Her PhD thesis is called 鈥淲omen in Red Serge: Female Police Bodies and the Disruption of the Image of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.鈥�

The research took three years, almost of all of it interviews because internal RCMP documents about the arrival of women officers were hard to come by.

鈥淚 just knew the history of women in the RCMP was a story waiting to be told,鈥� Schmidt says.

Schmidt spoke to 40 female RCMP officers in every province, including six from the very first troop of women.

The newcomers were usually sisters and daughters of police, who did not have a sense of themselves as trail blazers, Schmidt says.

鈥淭hey just wanted to do it.鈥�

But in the process of following their dream of a career in law enforcement, the women changed the way the force sees itself.

It was March 3, 1975, the United Nations International Women鈥檚 Year, when the first all-female troop of regular members graduated in Regina.

That came after the 1967 Royal Commission on the Status of Women recommended sweeping reforms to ensure equal opportunities for men and women in all aspects of Canadian society.

Four decades later, the 26,000-member force has 3,800 regular duty female officers among its 12,000 women employees.

The transition for an all-male, paramilitary organization steeped in British tradition to one with women officers was a bumpy ride, especially for the women.

鈥淭he image [of the force] was so dominant, so heroic, so masculine, that it was hard for women.鈥�

Schmidt herself recalls some instances of petty harassment, mostly crass comments that failed to rattle her.

Eventually, the female officers would wear the same dress and service uniforms as the men and the classic image of of the RCMP officer would never be the same. (There are two exceptions where female and male officers still dress differently: the 鈥渃eremonial鈥� full dress uniform or 鈥渨alking-out order鈥� for female members currently consists of a long blue skirt and pumps with a small black clutch purse when walking-out order is called for. The second exception is the official maternity uniform for pregnant officers).