Fifteen years after Christine Nixon became Victoria's police commissioner she remains the only woman who has done so anywhere in Australia.
Speaking to the ABC on Thursday night ahead of a keynote speech on the issue at the Queensland Institute of Technology, Ms Nixon said policing needed to attract more female officers.
Females make up 25 per cent of police officers across Australia - slightly more than 23 per cent in 2003 - and Ms Nixon says this could be because of a lack of focus from those leading the nation's forces.
"I think that the commissioners need to make policing more attractive for women," Ms Nixon told Lateline.
"I'd love to see the number up at about 35 or 40 per cent and I think once you get that kind of number of women in policing then you can bring about real change in the culture."
During her time in the top job Ms Nixon tried to introduce a quota but the matter was taken to court by the Victorian Police Association, where it ultimately blocked the plan.
Described by then-premier John Brumby as the best commissioner the state had ever had, Ms Nixon resigned from the top job in 2008.
She was highly commended for establishing the anti-gangland Purana Taskforce and faced intense criticism for leaving her post to go to dinner during the Black Saturday bushfires.
