News Photo by Julie Riddle Some of the many women leaders in the Alpena-area criminal justice system gather Thursday in the Alpena County circuit courtroom: from left, Christine Bednarski, Alpena County Sheriff’s Office deputy, Lauren Ostwald, Drug Court case manager, Sue Latuzek, District Court probation officer, Cynthia Muszynski, Alpena County assistant prosecutor, Terri Curtis, Alpena Police Department officer, and Michelle Reid, Alpena County animal control officer.

ALPENA — An older woman out with several young girls recently stopped Michigan Department of Natural Resources conservation officer Jessie Curtis as she was on patrol in her police uniform.

Expecting the usual thanks for her service, Curtis said, she was surprised by the woman’s words: “Thank you for showing my granddaughters what girls can do.”

Though numbers of women in its ranks are growing, the criminal justice system is still numerically dominated by men.

In a 2015 report, the U.S. Department of Justice said about 12% of law enforcement officers across the country were women, about the same as in 2007 and up only slightly from the 8% recorded in 1987. Only about one in 10 front-line law enforcement supervisors were women.

And most of those women work in larger communities. In communities the size of Alpena, women make up less than 10% of law enforcement officers, the Justice Department said in its most recent report on the subject.

In other areas, women are better-but-still-under-represented.

Currently, 222 women serve as judges in Michigan, filling 38% of judgeships, according to the State Court Administrative Office.

The U.S. Census Bureau says about 30% of lawyers are women. And about that share of Michigan prosecutors are women, including the state attorney general and several northern Michigan prosecutors, according to the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan.

Women make up about half the population.

Women have gained in Northeast Michigan law enforcement through some recent hires, but the numbers gap between men and women remains striking.

The women who work in that arena say they’re aware they’re outnumbered by male coworkers, but that’s never held them back.

Here are some of their stories.

ASHLEY SIMPSON

Of the 67 police officers in Alpena County, eight are women.

When state trooper Ashley Simpson joined the Michigan State Police-Alpena Post in 2012, she was the first woman in that department in a decade.

At other MSP posts in the state, Simpson said, up to half the officers could be women.

Alpena has been mostly welcoming to the presence of female officers, Simpson said. Still, it’s not uncommon for her to be challenged because she is a female in uniform or for her to hear doubts about her ability to fill the role.

“They’ll say, ‘You’re not big enough to do this job. You can’t do this job. Are you sure you know this job?'” Simpson said.

Though sometimes smaller in stature, a woman officer has all the training of a male. She is also more likely than a man to spend time talking to a subject, Simpson said, often able to use gender to an advantage by establishing a rapport and calming an unruly suspect.

“But, if I have to go hands-on? Let’s do it,” she added.

A female has never served as Alpena police chief, assistant police chief, sheriff, or undersheriff. Women currently serve as post commanders and captains for MSP throughout the state, but the Alpena Post has never had a female commander. The closest to Northeast Michigan may be 1st Lt. Yvonne Brantley of the Tri-City Post near Flint.

A female detective from the Alpena Post recently left the area to take a promotion to a higher rank.

Having heard every female-targeted derogatory slur in the book while responding to calls, Simpson is immune to people who choose to see her as anything less than a police officer.

“Yes, we are different,” Simpson said of women in law enforcement. “We act different, we do things differently. But we all have the same training, in the end.”

CYNTHIA MUSZYNSKI

Lawyer Cynthia Muszynski is the assistant prosecutor for Alpena County, an appointed position.

While Alpena has elected a female mayor, township supervisor, councilwomen, and county commissioners, it has never voted a woman into a high-ranking position in the criminal justice system.

Though in her position for 10 years, Muszynski still feels the difficulty of breaking into a male-dominated world of attorneys (currently, 16 of 63 Alpena County attorneys are female) and law enforcement officers.

As a woman, Muszynski said, “you almost have to prove yourself that much more to be able to fit into a world that is full of men.”

In the office, Muszynski said, she is respected, but attention quickly shifts from her to the male prosecutors when they enter a conversation. As the assistant prosecutor, she chooses to think that’s because of her lower position on the totem pole, rather than because of a male/female difference.

“I try to chalk it up to that and not take it personally, because I wear a skirt and they don’t,” Muszunski said. “But I wonder.”

In the courtroom, Muszynski has noticed, judges often interrupt her when she is trying to speak the people’s position. As a rule, she hesitates to push back, feeling a woman would be perceived as unprofessional or unstable if she refused to allow the interruption.

“If a man got up and was just as assertive as I would be, he wouldn’t be deemed crazy,” she said. “He’d be deemed passionate.”

She acknowledged that some male attorneys, often those with less experience, also get interrupted.

Unconcerned that it wasn’t a typical female role, Muszynski wanted to be a prosecutor since her Thunder Bay Junior High seventh-grade class visit to the circuit courtroom on the upper floor of the Alpena County courthouse.

“I sat in that courtroom and thought, ‘Man, I could do this. I could be here, working in this courtroom,'” Muszynski recalled. “And here I am.”

Asked if Alpena is ready for a female prosecutor or a female judge, Muszynski was firm in her answer.

“Absolutely,” she said. “Alpena is absolutely ready for a female in these positions. Once the right woman comes along, there’s no reason to think Alpena won’t see that and put her in those positions.”

LAURA FRAWLEY

Judge Laura Frawley has donned the black robe of the 81st District Court in Alcona County for more than a decade, presiding over probate, family, and sobriety courts, and sending offenders to prison or encouraging their path toward a better life.

“I don’t remember ever having the impression that I couldn’t do something because I was a girl — ever — until I got to law school,” Frawley said.

Although over half her classmates were women, many faculty members treated female students with overt condescension.

Graduating to a Livingston County prosecutor’s office, Frawley found herself surrounded by men who thought she would be a pushover. Referred to as “that female prosecutor” by clients who never bothered to learn her name, she slowly proved herself to the other attorneys and established herself as a respected leader, including a stint teaching at what is now called the Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley Law School. Frawley followed family connections and accepted a position at the then-public defender’s office in Alpena in 1992.

“It was stunning to me,” Frawley said. “I felt like I had stepped into the 1950s.”

Only a few female attorneys worked in the city at that time, none but her handling criminal cases, and all treated notably differently than the male attorneys, especially by a local judge.

“A male attorney could appear in from of him and be a blithering idiot and he would be as respectful as could be,” Frawley said. “But, if it was a female attorney, it didn’t matter how astute or sharp she was, he would interrupt her ceaselessly.”

A pay disparity marked the gender difference, as well. Frawley recalled a male coworker receiving a larger raise, despite her greater caseload. An “old boys’ club” mentality excluded her from opportunities, with many lawyerly conversations between colleagues carried on at hunting camps or on golfing greens, where women were not welcome.

Things have changed for the better in Alpena County, Frawley said, female attorneys rising in number and receiving more respect from the bench.

When Frawely ran for the bench herself in 2007, she was told she had no chance of winning.

Now behind the bench, she sees a range of attitudes in the courtroom: some respectful, some too familiar, some blustery and disparaging toward her as a female.

A gleam in her eyes, the judge admitted that she loves it when people underestimate her.

She recalled with relish her early days, walking into a courtroom, knowing people looked at her with low expectations.

“And I’d just think to myself, just wait,” she said. “Just wait for this to unfold.”

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693, jriddle@thealpenanews.com or on Twitter @jriddleX.