With the opening of the Watch Houses, they needed new officers yesterday.
And she was the Commander now.
Her Watch, her rules.
She looked down at the poster that the Watch had been using since forever.
She crossed out "Bee a man!" and wrote above it "Men and women,". She would give it to Carrot for reprinting in the morning. Doubtless he would turn "Men and Women, Join the Watch!" into something painfully earnest, patriotic, and grammatically incorrect.
But her point would be noted.
She was the Commander. She.
Vimes smiled.[i]
It was time to rock the boat a bit.
—
The Watch always had admitted women, one of the few employers in Ankh-Morpork to do so.[ii] This policy had fallen by the wayside over the years, but the fact still remained.
Sam had gone ignored when the Watch was just her, Fred and Nobby. Sam could be looked over when she was nothing more than a drunkard nominally heading a bygone and broken relic of an institution. Even when a few more people joined and the Watch were poking their noses into places they didn't belong, it was easy to forget that the washed-up alkie captain was a woman.[iii]
But now Vimes was now not only the Commander of the Watch, she was also married to the richest man in Ankh-Morpork. And there were these handbills across the city exhorting gels, GELS, to join the Watch, and well….this just would not do.
A group of concerned gentlemen and city leaders went to Lord Vetinari to let him know this.
Vetinari looked up at the gathering in his office.
"Hello gentlemen[iv]," he said and promptly fell silent, waiting….waiting….
"What are you thinking, having a woman lead the Watch?" Ah yes, Lord Venturi , blunt as always.
"Captain…Commander Vimes is one of the Watch's most senior members as well as its most competent. There is no one else better qualified to be the head of the Watch than her." Vetinari noted the flinches across the room of the use of the word 'her'.[v]
"But a woman in charge of a storied and venerable institution as the Watch?[vi]" Lord Downey queried. "It is well known that women cannot handle such responsibility."
Vetinari raised an eyebrow. "I am sure that would be news to Mrs. Palm, Queen Molly, Mrs. Manger, and Miss Dixie, your fellow Guild-leaders. Of course, this also ignores the fact that Commander Vimes is currently busy organizing a recruitment campaign and setting up a network of Watch houses across the city. Or that she has been head of the Watch for the last several years."
Lord Downey had to admit[vii] that he couldn't argue against that. Not that he wanted to argue too much against the Patrician. Luckily, Lord Rust[viii] jumped ably into the fray, being both suicidally brave and having no sense.
"My lord, you CANNOT have some jumped up twat-"he started and was immediately silenced with a look from the Patrician.
"I will not have disrespect in this office. Do you hear me?"
Lord Rust, who had turned ashen, managed a mangled "y's" and slunk back to his compatriots.
Vetinari smiled. "Very well. I am sure you gentlemen are very busy and have other things to do?"
—-
Within the first week they had four women come to join up.
Vimes smiled, and things slowly but surely started to change in Ankh Morpork.
[i] It was a smile seen by fish right before the shark opened its mouth.
[ii] Women fought wonderfully dirty. Not to mention, the Watch was always, even at its founding, desperate for ANYONE to sign up.
[iii] They had a dwarf and a troll in the Watch for godssakes.
[iv] Slant surprisingly was not with them. But while he did not like Vimes, let alone a Vimes with a title and a position of command, he had to admit that it was not illegal for her to be head of the Watch.
[v] Not that he was deriving any amusement from their discomfort, of course not.
[vi] Or that bunch of ragtag rabblerousing bastards who got into everyone's business as Downey thought of them, but he could keep a straight face in front of Vetinari.
[vii] Silently of course
[viii] His nose still unbroken, for now.