Zubin Stillings
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Mary Beth Wilkas Janke, a 59-year-old former Secret Service Agent. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
After taking a criminal justice elective in high school, I decided I wanted to be an FBI agent. I studied criminal justice and Spanish in college and moved to Spain after graduation. At 24, I moved back to the US to become a federal law agent.
I applied to the DEA and the United States Secret Service (USSS). The Secret Service offered me a job after many interviews, an exam, a review of my documents, and a polygraph. I didn't have a military or law enforcement background, but I met the qualifications for the role.
I worked for the Secret Service from May 1991 to June 1992. This wasn't a traditional career path for women in the 1990s. At that time, only 180 of the 2,000 agents were women. Many people judged me, but nobody could dissuade me from pursuing my dream.
It's an intense, demanding job that requires you to carry a weapon, make sacrifices, and know you're in a man's world, but women are equipped to do this job just as well as men.
I spent nine and a half weeks being trained as a criminal investigator and another nine and a half weeks learning the responsibilities of the Secret Service through classroom lectures, practical exercises, physical fitness, firearms, time on the mat, and simulation training.
The hiring and training processes are the same for men and women, except for the physical fitness evaluation requirements. To pass the quarterly fitness test, we have to run 1.5 miles in a certain timeframe. Men between 20 and 29 must complete the run in 10 minutes and 16 seconds, while women can complete it in 12 minutes and 50 seconds.
I don't see anything wrong with having different physical standards for men and women. We're physiologically different, and this job is not about physical strength. Physical standards are different across many agencies and organizations, like the military, any given police force, and even Olympic qualifications.
Nothing else is different between men and women on the job. We all must pass the same tests and be proficient in firearms training, defensive tactics, motorcade driving, arrest methods, emergency medicine, and investigative skills.
At that time, I was the only agent in the Washington Field Office who spoke Spanish, so I was often placed on assignments involving counterfeit currency from Latin American countries. I would interview Spanish-speaking suspects or participate in raids.
I was also assigned to protect two of George H.W. Bush's grandchildren on a rotating basis. I don't believe, and I never felt, that certain assignments were given to agents based on their gender.
My mother and I had heated discussions about some of the missions I was on because they were so dangerous. Sometimes, I'd ask my mom if we would be having the conversation if I were a man because I didn't think we would. I understood and respected her concern; however, this is my life, and I will always live it on my terms.
When I left the Service, I became an international personal protection agent, doctor of clinical psychology, college professor, and author.
This job requires personal sacrifices, like canceling plans you had to meet friends on Friday night because you got called to an Air Force Base for a vice presidential movement.
I noticed that some of the women I worked with left the agency for "traditional" reasons. One of my best friends from training left after five years to start a family, and another friend left because she wanted a more predictable career.
You must be willing to take a bullet for your protectee at any time. That's the heartbeat of the job, and it can be both exciting and dangerous. I wanted the challenge, and I loved having a career that was anything but boring.
Certain women are equipped to do this job, just as certain men are, but I think it takes more of a special woman than a special man to go into law enforcement because of the scrutiny and commitment.
When I applied, I knew I'd be surrounded by mostly male colleagues, but it didn't intimidate me.
When my male colleagues would make negative or derogatory comments about me, I never showed that what they said bothered me. Instead, it pushed me to work harder.
In training, a fellow agent asked me what I was doing there and said that I didn't belong. I knew he was wrong. I went through the strenuous application process, just like he did, to get the job, and I belonged there.
One guy told me before women were hired, it was the "good old days" when they could enjoy booze, broads, and Buicks. He said that bringing women in messed that up for them. I told him hiring women was the best decision the Service ever made — he laughed and appreciated my standing up to him. We eventually became friends.
Women often excel in communication and negotiation skills, which are crucial to a USSS Agent's duties. In many situations, women can more easily blend into environments where a male may be more conspicuous.
Having women in the Service also shows that women can perform in demanding jobs that have traditionally been male-dominated.
The head of the Department of Homeland Security is pushing to have more women in law enforcement, up to 30% by 2030, and I think that's great, but I often wonder why it's not at 30% already.
The Secret Service's efforts to increase DEI and female hires is nothing unusual as long as the candidates are qualified. These individuals still have to go through a rigorous hiring and training process and meet the same qualifications as everyone else.
I think many women don't even realize this career path exists. When I was doing a protection advance in 1992 at a hotel, the general manager said to me, "I didn't know there were women Secret Service Agents!"
There are dozens of federal law enforcement agencies, and my advice to anyone is even if you can't get into the one that you want at first, start at one agency and transfer down the road.
Don't let what anybody thinks about whether women belong on the job stop you from applying to a position in law enforcement. You belong there, and if you start to doubt that, find a mentor with the career path you want and lean on them to guide you.
