Sexism in the F.B.I

A female F.B.I agent, Danielle Snider was easily passing her fitness, academic and firearms tests, but then came the last phase. The last phase was training on tactics like entering a house and confronting an armed attacker. Snider, an Air Force Academy graduate, stumbled. Instructors at the F.B.I’s facility in Quantico, Va., wrote her up four times in one day, then she was bounced from the course last January. In one instance, a man in training with her made a similar mistake and it was overlooked. Snider said it was part of a pattern and other women who failed out of the academy said that the instructors, almost all men, scrutinized them more closely because they were women and treated men differently when they made mistakes. In a NY Times article, Snider stated, “I felt it wasn’t the same playing field for women. I think it is fundamentally unfair.”

I think that this article caught my attention because the blatant sexism that occurs between men who hold power over women is so obvious, yet so hard to be called out. Not only does blatant sexism occur in the media, but it occurs in the workplace. Employees and trainers need to be held accountable for their actions and level the playing field for everyone.