Women in Federal Agency Law Enforcement

Dorothy Moses Schulz

The modern history of women special agents in federal law enforcement agencies began in 1971, when President Richard M. Nixon issued Executive Order No. 11478. The order, Equal Employment Opportunity in the Federal Government, prohibited discrimination in employment at the federal level because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, handicap, or age and effectively ended the ban on employing women in the title of special agent. It also opened up to women positions in GS-1811 status, or criminal investigative positions, from which they had previously been barred. Agencies that hired women that same year included the Secret Service and the Postal Inspection Service. Others, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), did not implement this change until 1972. Although women continue to have a difficult time establishing credibility among their male peers and have filed numerous lawsuits against virtually all the federal law enforcement agencies, it did not take ...

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