Women Agents: In Their Own Words

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Video Transcript

I really wanted to have some sort of an adventurous job that meant something. Not just to go to work and not contribute. I always wanted to be someone to do the right thing, to be fair and honest, and to stick up for the little guys.

At the time women became first at anything, somebody always took notice. And often it was the women that took notice because we were trying to find our way and make sure that we had the opportunities that men who were agents had. And we did.

You think about all of those people, men and women, but particularly women, the trailblazers, the women who came before me, who never got to be, for example, a supervisor, or an ASAC or a section chief, or an SES or even an assistant director. The things that they must have had to have endured with being the first ones so that I can really be sitting here today telling my story.

Boxing, I knew that we were going to box. So I grabbed a couple of my guys up in New York and they hit me. We put on the gloves and the helmet and they, like, I need to know what it feels like to be hit. So let’s go at it here, and I have no idea what I’m doing but let’s box, because I know we’re going to box down there.

I think as an FBI agent, like I can be a female, but I can also be tough and sometimes I think that can be a challenge for women coming in. Because I had a new, one of my girls that worked for me, she’s no longer there but she moved on, she’s like, but I don’t want to be a guy. I said do I look like a guy?

I would say as a woman I just see myself as another agent. I don’t think that I’ve ever felt that I was a trailblazer.

I think things have changed. I know they have. In fact, I was having a conversation with a female agent I guess a week ago or so. And she told me that she doesn’t look at herself as a female agent, just as an agent. I thought, that’s a good thing and it was good to hear her say that, because it shouldn’t be, “you’re a female agent.” You’re an agent.