The FBI has agreed to pay more than $22 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging female recruits were singled out for dismissal in training.
The payout to 34 women dismissed from the FBI’s training academy in Quantico, Virginia, still subject to approval by a federal judge, would rank among the biggest lawsuit settlements in the FBI’s history.
“These problems are pervasive within the FBI and the attitudes that created them were learned at the academy,” said David J. Shaffer, the lawyer for the women. “This case will make important major changes in these attitudes.”
Filed in 2019 and first reported by NBC News, the lawsuit contends that female recruits had been subjected to a hostile working environment in which they were judged more harshly than their male peers and “excessively targeted for correction and dismissal in tactical situations for perceived lack of judgment” and subjective “suitability” criteria.
Women described being dismissed after quick hearings before the agency’s Trainee Review Board, despite having completed months of training and passed all rests related to knowledge, physical fitness and firearm skills. Some said instructors perceived them as being “weak and prone to failure” and consistently gave them lower performance ratings for mistakes that were ignored when their male counterparts made them.
In a statement, the FBI told NBC News, "The FBI cannot comment on pending litigation. However, our people are our most important asset. We have taken significant steps over the past five years to further ensure gender equity in the training and development of all our trainees. This includes revisions to our trainee evaluation processes and additional training for Training Division personnel.”
Many of the allegations in the lawsuit were confirmed in a 2022 internal watchdog report. The report found, for instance, that women accounted for 46% of all the trainees dismissed from the FBI Academy from 2015 to 2020, even though they represented only 25% of the entire group.
Men still make up some 75% of the bureau’s special agents despite efforts to diversify in recent years.
Among the provisions of the settlement was that the FBI would offer the plaintiffs a chance to continue training toward becoming agents and “guaranteed placement,” for those who pass, in one of their top three preferred field offices. The bureau also has agreed to a review by outside experts who will work to ensure that female recruits face a fair evaluation process.
Some of the women have moved on to other careers, Shaffer said, adding “the FBI has deprived itself of some genuinely exceptional talent.”
One of those women, Paula Bird, said she was "extremely pleased" that the settlement "will bring a measure of justice" and hopes it will cause the FBI to make changes that will "give women going through agent training in the future a fair shot at their dream career."
“My dream was to be an FBI agent," said Bird, who was the lead plaintiff in the gender discrimination suit and is now a practicing lawyer. "I interned with the FBI in college and did everything needed to qualify for a special agent role. I even became a lawyer, which the FBI considers a high-value qualification for future agents. It was shattering when the FBI derailed my career trajectory."
