Why the FBI Seeks More Women as Special Agents?
By Special Agent James J. Knights
FBI Applicant Coordinator Pittsburgh PA
Ed note: Many women on campus have decided to leave academe to start their own business, focus on their families or follow their passions. Here’s another alternative.
In seeking educated and accomplished professionals to be Special Agents, the FBI has always had difficulty in attracting qualified women.
Of 11,649 current Special Agents, only 2,105 or 18% are women. Among the 15,792 FBI support employees, 10,589, or 67%, are women. Clearly, women are well represented in the “traditionally female” non-agent positions, but are significantly under-represented in the “traditionally male” position of Special Agent.
Despite our best efforts here in Pittsburgh and in the 55 other FBI field offices, relatively few qualified women apply to become Special Agents. Why? Do women view the FBI as an unwelcoming, male-dominated organization? Are women averse to carrying and using firearms, or the possibility of physical violence?
Women themselves have told me, “I’m not qualified”; “you wouldn’t want me”; “you wouldn’t trust me with secret information”; “I can’t shoot a gun”; “ I can’t do the physical training.” In reality, many of these women are qualified to be an FBI Special Agent in the premier law enforcement agency in the world.
The purpose of this article is to explain why women belong in law enforcement and how their unique skills contribution to the mission of the FBI as Special Agents. Women have gender-related characteristics and talents that make their contribution to law enforcement invaluable.
What does it take to be a Special Agent?
In addition to having a four-year degree, applicants must be U.S. citizens between the ages of 23 and 36, in good health and physical condition, and able to pass a polygraph test and background investigation. Details are on the FBI’s employment Website, www.fbijobs.com
What academic preparation is the FBI looking for today? Many younger people incorrectly believe they should major in a field related to law enforcement.
After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the FBI changed its priorities in hiring Special Agents. Today, the FBI seeks agents with degrees in computer science, traditional engineering, traditional physical sciences, accounting, (disciplines requiring a mind trained toward logical analysis and critical thinking) or fluency in a critical foreign language, as well as experience in intelligence and counter-terrorism.
With Internet and computer-oriented crime on the rise, two years of “computer science and information technology” is a new recruiting category.
Salaries are competitive. New Special Agents earn the equivalent of about $40,000 annually during their 16 weeks at the FBI Academy, and $54,000 to $58,000 after they report to their first field office. After five years, they earn about $80,000 annually.
Why are women exceptionally well-suited?
Research has shown that females are more able to detect subtle changes in facial expression, which would make them better able to sense moods in other people. This is an immensely useful skill for an investigator interviewing someone trying to mislead or manipulate her.
Another study suggested that women “are more efficient at moving between different ways of relating to the world.” In a profession where events and scenarios can change rapidly over a single day or a single hour, such as during kidnapping and extortion investigations, the ability to rapidly and efficiently adapt to different circumstances and regulate how one relates to others is critical.
Women approach intellectual problems differently than do men. Consider a complex criminal investigation. It has long been accepted that women’s verbal skills, including verbal memory and fluency, are superior to men’s. In verbal tests, women are better at rapidly identifying matching items. In another area, women were found to rely heavily on the use of landmarks during navigation exercises. Similarly, women are also better able to remember whether items in a sequence had changed places.
These traits indicate that women have the edge in discerning patterns, obviously a critical skill in complex investigations and especially true in using an investigative tool known as “linkage.” For instance, while investigating a number of homicides, investigators will often attempt to establish commonalties or “links” between the victims: occupation, age, physical characteristics, residences, friends and associates, even the color of the victims’ cars might be considered.
Using linkage in this manner could help determine what drew the killer to those particular victims, which in turn, may help identify him. The advantages of having one or more female investigators at the center of such an investigation are clear.
Research shows women’s cognitive abilities differ in many ways from men’s. For the FBI, an investigative team composed of a blend of female and male agents will be much more effective at bringing a complex investigation to a successful resolution quickly and efficiently than would one composed of only one sex.
As a woman, however, your value as an FBI Special Agent goes far beyond differences in brain chemistry. Women’s interpersonal skills make them extremely effective law enforcement officers. Women are excellent communicators and listeners, often better able to engender trust among both women and men and defuse and deescalate potentially violent situations, thus avoiding the use of excessive or deadly force. For law enforcement agencies, this might translate into fewer lawsuits.
Plus, the ability to calm emotionally charged situations may result from female law enforcement officers generally appearing less threatening than men-a definite benefit. In these situations, being a woman is a real advantage. In other words, women possess unique skills that compensate for their being less physically powerful than the men they face in confrontations.
More than one potential female applicant has told me, “I can’t kick down doors.” My response is: “We don’t need you to kick down doors.” The FBI has enough agents who are qualified “door kickers.” What we need is more agents who have the skills to talk a subject out of a barricaded room, thus eliminating the need to kick down the door in first place and risk lives.
At no time is the ability to communicate, engender trust and have a calming effect more critical than when an FBI Agent is negotiating to save the lives of helpless hostages. The contribution of female agents to non-violent crisis resolution is reflected by the fact that while only 18% of the FBI’s nearly 11,700 agents are female, women are 25% of the FBI’s 400 hostage negotiators.
Women are more effective team builders than men. When groups of newly introduced men engage in conversation, they establish a pecking order, perhaps unconsciously. But women converse to cultivate group cohesion.
FBI Special Agents often find themselves working on major cases with other agents they didn’t know the day before. Right now, in our medium-sized Pittsburgh Field Office, we’re handling two major cases simultaneously-an unprecedented situation. Special Agents and support employees from across the country, who have been sent in to assist in Pittsburgh, suddenly find themselves working alongside strangers. Here’s where team building skills are especially needed.
What does the FBI offer?
Women in our society-including those who happen to be FBI agents-are still the primary care givers for children. Often they must decide whether to remain on the job or resign to raise a family.
The FBI is attempting to address this problem. The bureau has always been very supportive of employees in crisis; an agent injured on or off duty-or an employee with a child or spouse suffering from a serious illness- could always count on his or her coworkers and FBI management to go to almost any length give almost any length to assist and support that employee.
For example, the FBI has always had a policy of “hardship transfers.” An agent with a compelling reason, such as a sick elderly parent with no one else to depend upon, could request a transfer to another field office to be close to that parent About 10 years ago, the FBI and other federal agencies started a “family friendly” sick leave policy, which allows an employee to use her or his sick leave to care for an ill family member.
The FBI follows the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, which permits employees to take up to 12 weeks of leave without pay for medical exigencies, including the birth and care of a child, placement of a child for adoption or foster care, a serious personal health problem, or the care of a seriously ill parent, spouse or child. The FBI’s “voluntary leave transfer program” encourages employees to donate their unused annual leave to their colleagues who, because of serious illness or accident, have used all their available annual and sick leave. Women can use the program to remain out of work to care for a seriously ill family member. In fact, more than half the employees using this program are women.
Perhaps of greatest benefit to female Special Agents in particular is a policy the FBI started in 1990. In a truly revolutionary move for the bureau, Special Agents were, with justification, given the option of working part-time.
This program allows an agent, say a woman with a pre-school child, to work 16-32 hours a week, thus having the flexibility to raise her child and pursue a career. Of the 219 agents who have opted to work part-time since the program started, 209 are women who were not forced to make the painful choice between career and family.
Female agents are still trying to balance family and work, and the FBI is doing what it can to help, recognizing the value of a woman in society and that her family responsibilities don’t evaporate when she becomes a Special Agent. If it is to attract and retain highly qualified women as Special Agents, the FBI must afford them the flexibility to be law enforcement officers and to fulfill their family responsibilities.
The best job in the world
Why be a Special Agent? No other law enforcement agency has the FBI’s resources, reputation, prestige and global presence. Consider returning a kidnapped child to her mother, helping put a drug ring out of business, exposing a spy, assisting in the search of a crime scene that is national news, uncovering that critical clue that allows the prevention of the next terrorist attack on us.
Women possess different analytical skills, approach problems differently, and have different talents and abilities than do men. Rather than considering them divisive, the FBI believes these differences are complementary. As a woman, you have valuable contributions to make to your country’s security by becoming part of the world’s premiere law enforcement agency. The FBI would be even stronger and more effective if more women contributed their unique talents as Special Agents.
If you believe the FBI is a male-dominated organization, you’re correct-although less so now than 20 years ago. It will remain so until more qualified women choose to make a difference. The FBI recognizes and acknowledges your value to law enforcement and society. If you believe the FBI should continue to change, here is your opportunity to be the catalyst of that change. The offer is on the table.
Thanks to Lorelei Stein, PhD, Point Park University, Pittsburgh, for providing invaluable guidance in research for this article, as well as Joe Zabka, of the Helen Jean Moore Library of Point Park University. Contact Special Agent James Knights at (412) 432-4374 or jknights@leo.gov
The Female Special Agent Website
Why the FBI Seeks More Women as Special Agents?
As published in the March 2004 edition of Women in Higher Education.
Leading Ladies of the FBI
Meet just a few of the leading ladies of the FBI.
The History of Women in The FBI
Have a look at the role woman have played in the bureau since its historic beginning.
New Agents Physical Fitness Test Protocol
See the new physical fitness requirements.
Part time Special Agent Employment Program (PTAP)
Allowing Special Agents a period of time to alter the pace of their career.
Benefits
The FBI offers paid leave, a competitive retirement plan, health and wellness services, and subsidized health and life insurance plans.
https://www.fbijobs.com/fsa/knights.asp
https://www.fbijobs.com/fsa/home.asp
https://www.fbijobs.com/fsa/history.asp
https://www.fbijobs.com/fsa/leading.asp