Fact#7: The FBI's First Female Agents

You can check out the LLP blog and read a transcript/references of this episode at www.ladieslovepolitics.com. If you're looking for something to listen to besides politics, check out my crime podcast on YouTube.
Ladies Love Crime: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8Z3F_1rn3a637H_p7YtMUg
Background Music Credit:
Music: Hang for Days - Silent Partner https://youtu.be/A41A0XeU2ds
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FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had a firm rule against women becoming agents. However, when Hoover kicked the bucket in 1972, the agency changed its tune.

Enter 31 year-old Joanne Pierce Misko and 25 year-old Susan Roley Malone. Along with 43 men, they began special agent training in 1972.

These two women couldn’t be more different. Joanne was already working at the FBI, but before that had been a nun for a decade. Susan was a former U.S. Marine.

Joanne and Susan quickly became friends. During training, the pair lived together, worked out together, and proved the nay-sayers wrong. They had to meet the same requirements as the men … and they did.

Neither woman took the novelty of being the first female agents as a social cause. Years later, Joanne said, “I honestly didn’t see myself as a pioneer. It was just a role that I was fortunate enough to become a part of.” Susan has since said, “we wanted to be agents first. We just happened to be women.”

These women ended up working on some impressive cases - including the Patty Hearst kidnapping, the Reagan assassination, the Unabomber murders, and 9/11.

Adding female agents was more than being PC -it was needed . In the previous 4 years, the first 6 women made the FBI’s most wanted list. This feminine twist on crime was hard for the men. In fact, one woman on the list- Katherine Power - found it fairly easy to hide, saying, “the F.B.I. didn’t know how to take women seriously. They never had a clue.”

If you’re looking to learn more about the women on the FBI's most wanted list check out my other podcast channel, Ladies Love Crime on YouTube.

REFERENCES:
https://www.intelligence.gov/index.php/people/barrier-breakers-in-history/659-1972-joanne-pierce-misko-and-susan-roley-malone
https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/celebrating-women-special-agents-part-2