The Metropolitan police commissioner, Cressida Dick, has said she wants half of London’s officers to be women, as part of a commitment to end male domination in the ranks.

With just over one in four officers, 27%, being female, the Met has launched its first recruitment drive targeting women.

The Met is Britain’s largest force, with about 30,000 officers in total, but government figures show it has one of the lowest proportions of female officers among the forces in England and Wales. Dick, the first female commissioner in its history, has vowed to turn that around.

Thursday also marks the start of celebrations marking the centenary of women being allowed to join the Met.

Dick said: “I want to use this celebration to appeal to all women to consider having a career in the Met. Being a police officer is a diverse and challenging job, but it is extremely rewarding and you get to make a difference to so many people. Today, we have launched our female-specific recruitment campaign and there is no better time to be a woman in the Met.”

The force has not set a target date of when it wants to reach gender equality in the ranks, describing it as a long-term aim. In 1999, police forces promised within a decade to meet government targets on recruiting enough minority ethnic officers so they looked like the populations they served. Every force missed the targets and they were dropped. No force has yet met them.

On gender, the Met has the third lowest proportion of female officers, just above the City of London and Cleveland forces.

Home Office figures show that as of March 2018 there were 36,417 female officers in England and Wales, about 30% of the total.

The forces with the highest gender balance are Cumbria, where 38% of officers are female, Wiltshire (35%) and North Wales (34%).

Women are most represented at the lowest rank of constable, where they make up 31.6% of the total, while they make up 23% of the next rank up, sergeant, and 27% of chief officers, according to the Home Office.

In the Met, 3% of female officers are from ethnic minorities, and the force says it wants to reach 20%.

Clare Davis, the head of human resources at the Met, said: “We know what’s important to women in our workplace and have listened to their feedback. Over the next 12 months we will implement a range of measures, such as new ways of joining the Met, different career pathways, improved maternity support, and returnships.

“We have almost 8,000 female officers who are thriving in all our specialisms at almost every rank and we want even more talented women to join us.”

The first women to be recruited by the Met in 1918 were known as women patrols. They had to be aged 35 to 38, physically fit, well read and able to write legibly, and have no dependent children. They were paid 30 shillings a week plus a 12 shillings war bonus, but the Met would take 10 shillings back if the female recruit needed accommodation. When they took to the streets in 1919 they had no powers to arrest and no uniform.