It is a measure of how different things are that when another female officer, Miosotis Familia, was shot and killed last week, her gender was far less a focus than were the nondiscriminatory perils of her profession. There are now 6,394 female officers on a force of just over 36,000 in New York City. And across the nation, women have pushed their way into policing’s most demanding jobs. To them, Officer Familia’s death was seen as a grim signifier of their growing front-line roles.

Image Officer Lozada was one of about 150 women on the 3,500-officer transit police force in 1984, the year she was killed in the line of duty. Credit... United Press International

“All of us suffer that same risk, man and woman,” said Sheree Briscoe, a district commander for the Baltimore Police Department. “That’s what’s happening in the culture of policing.”

Officer Familia was the third female New York City officer killed in action. The second was Officer Moira Smith, who died on Sept. 11, 2001. Elected leaders and police officers gathered on Monday at a Bronx church for Officer Familia’s wake; her funeral will be held Tuesday morning.

Even as the risks have leveled, some female officers describe still having to prove to male colleagues that they are bold enough for the job. The boy’s club mentality that defined police departments for so long still surfaces, they say, in more modest locker room accommodations for women and gender-laden expectations.

Many officers, they say, still view sensitivity as a sign of weakness. And while some cities have recently turned to female chiefs to steer their departments away from problems with overaggressive policing, some women say proposing reforms opens them up to stereotypical accusations.