BOSTON (AP) – Women are climbing the ranks at the state Department of Correction, nearly doubling over the past 20 years their share of some management positions.

Nearly half of all Department of Correction managers above the rank of sergeant and lieutenant are women, compared to about a quarter in 1985, prison statistics show.

Women also have increasingly entered the correction officer ranks. In 1985, about 10 percent of officers were women. Today, they make up more than 20 percent, reports the Telegram & Gazette of Worcester.

“My experience coming up the ranks has been largely positive,” said Lois Russo, the first female superintendent of the super-maximum-sercurity Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center. “Although we’ve made some gains, it certainly hasn’t been by leaps and bounds.”

Some observers say the appointment last year of Kathleen Dennehy as the DOC’s first female commissioner has something to do with the recent advancements of women.

Between being appointed acting commissioner Dec. 1, 2003 and last month, Dennehy has hired and promoted many women. Of 12 management hires, nine have been women, and of the 300 new non-management employees who started at the DOC during Dennehy’s tenure, 102 have been women.

But DOC administrators say the recent advancements are largely a product of time. Women who first entered the field in the 1970s are only now rising to the top, they say.

“Quite frankly, it takes time to rise through the chain of command,” said Kelly Nantel, a top aide to Dennehy. “It really is a natural progression.”