OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — The UNO School of Criminology and Criminal Justice held a public virtual seminar featuring the women from the Omaha FBI Office.
Women represent just 16 percent of the FBI but they are looking to change that.
The training is tough, intense and only the best of the best make it through. Not all jobs at the FBI are for Field Agents. They want to break the stereotype of what the FBI is looking for.
"Honestly, I don't think there is one major that we haven't hired from," said Special Agent Michele Stevenson. "We look for a very broad, diverse background in education as well as gender, ethnicity. We need that variety of perspectives in our agency in order to do our jobs more effectively."
They say it has been more difficult to recruit women because of the travel and relocation involved. For women willing to travel both nationally and internationally, the further and faster they can get promoted.
"We really just want to expose them to role models in the field," said Dr. Samantha Clinkinbeard, an associate professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at UNO. "There were a lot of questions, we couldn't even get to all of the questions that were asked which shows that people were interested in learning more."
Eighty percent of the women at the FBI are senior executives.
The FBI touted their benefits, retirement program and pension plans as being very generous. They have 700 professional job types outside of being an agent.
