Women
Blaze a Trail in 1972
 | |
| Top right- Malone, bottom right- Misko |
They were known as the nun and the
Marine. The respective backgrounds of Joanne Pierce Misko and Susan Roley
Malone could not have been more dissimilar. But 40 years ago, on July 17, 1972,
the two women were drawn together by a shared goal—to become FBI special
agents.
Up until then, under the leadership of
longtime FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, only men could be agents. But just weeks
after Hoover died in May 1972, the Bureau’s acting director—motivated in part
by new equal rights laws—changed the men-only policy that had been in place
since the Prohibition Era. So on a balmy Monday exactly four decades ago, the
two women assembled with 43 similarly pressed and starched men at FBI
Headquarters to take their oath before heading down to the FBI Training Academy
in Quantico, Virginia for 14 weeks (now 20) of physical and mental
conditioning.
The new agent training was tough enough
on its own—firearms, strength, endurance, self-defense, academics. But for
Misko and Malone, who were expected to meet the requirements long in place for
males, there was the added dimension of their novelty, which was not
universally embraced at first.
“I’m sure when they first saw that there
were two women in their class it was like, ‘Oh, we got them,’” Misko recalled
in a recent interview. Malone, who had already broken some stereotypes as a
Marine, remembers a fellow classmate confronting her during a break, brusquely
asking why she thought she could be an FBI agent. “And I sat down and I talked
to him,” Malone stated. “I said, ‘I love my country just like you do. I want to
be here for the same reasons that you want to be here.’” He heard her out. And
in the weeks that followed, the two women set out to demonstrate that they
belonged in their coveted slots in New Agent Class 73-1. They won over some of
the most ardent doubters by rising to every challenge and helping their
classmates over some hurdles along the way. In the crucible of training, the
group bonded quickly.
“We got along pretty well and everybody
kind of pulled together as a class,” said Misko, who was 31 at the time.
“Because in training I think we were all in the same boat. We were all trying
to prove ourselves.”
Permitting women into the ranks of
special agents was a big story at the time, but the Bureau tried to minimize
distractions in order to maintain the integrity of training. “They wanted us to
be like any other agent,” said Malone, who was 25 when she entered the FBI
Academy. “They didn’t want to make this inordinately special or set us apart
from our fellow agents. I think that was very important at the time. We wanted
to be just another agent.”
Despite following wildly divergent paths
to Quantico and having very little in common, Misko and Malone—the nun and the
Marine—leaned on each other to get through training. “We supported each other,”
said Malone. “We were complementary. We worked together. We would practice the
run at night, we would go to the gym and work out. We were allies. There’s that
bond there when you’re someone’s roommate and you’re going through the same
training. That’s a lifelong bond.”
Misko and Malone completed the training
in October 1972 and, like all new agents, received orders to report to one of
the Bureau’s field offices. Malone was sent to Omaha and Misko to St. Louis.
Both women recall being met with some initial resistance in the ranks, but
quickly showed they could pull their weight. The former roommates would cross
paths occasionally in their successful careers. They recognize today they were
trailblazers, but that was never their goal.
“I honestly didn’t see myself as a
pioneer,” said Misko, now 71. “It was just a role that I was fortunate enough
to become a part of.”
Malone, 65, echoed Misko’s comments. “I
was an agent first and Joanne was an agent first. We wanted to be agents first.
We just happened to be women.”
Firsts
in Their Field
On July 17, 1972, the first two women of
the modern era entered the FBI Training Academy at Quantico, Virginia.
This is the second story in our series
marking the 40-year anniversary of women special agents.
Joanne
Pierce Misko
Joanne Pierce Misko was a nun in New
York for 10 years before joining the FBI in 1970 as a researcher. When the
opportunity arose in 1972 to become one of the first women special agents, her
boss at the time explained all the pluses and minuses. “Okay,” she said. “I
still want to do it.”
Susan
Roley Malone
Susan Roley Malone was in the Marine
Corps when the FBI opened new-agent training to women. She always admired the
Bureau—she spent a year researching the FBI for an eighth-grade project. When
women were allowed into the Academy, she said, “I was encouraged by my friends
and my own desires, and I applied.”
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment