Men are more predominant in FBI senior positions than they were even three years ago. Amy Hess, 50, head of the bureau’s science section, said, “There is a lack of women in leadership roles,” the New York Times reports. Women hold 12 percent of 220 senior agent positions, including nine who run field offices in places like Los Angeles, Oklahoma City; Louisville, and Knoxville, Tn. That is a decline from 2013, when women held about 20 percent of senior agent jobs and 15 women ran field offices. “It seems to be going backwards,” said Janice Fedarcyk, now retired, who ran the New York office, with about 2,000 employees, from 2010 to 2012. “They need to do something to turn that around.’’
FBI Director James Comey has described the bureau’s lack of women and minorities as a serious problem that can undermine investigations and keep the agency out of touch with the communities it serves. Of the bureau’s 13,523 agents about 20 percent are women and 83 percent are white.