ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The first female FBI agent was hired in the 1970s. Over time slowly more women joined the bureau.
Two women in the Rochester office are now making history.
“Being female in the FBI, you know that you're the minority,” said SSA Sandra Berchtold. “And sometimes I think that kind of pushes you to do even better.”
“One of the things that is unique, I think when you don't meet that stereotype of what an FBI agent is and the stereotype is a white tall male,” said SSA Rosa Ford.
Two women — the same high rank in the FBI. Both in positions never before held by females in the Rochester branch of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Ford is the supervisor of the Joint Terrorism Task Force of the FBI in Rochester. Berchtold leads the White Collar Crime Unit.
The majority of those both women supervise are men.
“I treat all of my squad the same whether they're male or female, they know they can come to me they know my doors open,” said Berchtold.
The highly experienced Berchtold came to the FBI following the events of 911. Landing in the Detroit Field Office where she held several positions, racked up accommodation after accommodation, and led a squad investigating violent crimes against children.
It’s experience that now benefits Rochester.
“Law enforcement is a very male-dominated job pool,” Berchtold said.
Male-dominated indeed. It wasn’t all that long ago that the FBI refused to hire women as special agents. A letter from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to a female applicant in 1971 states, “We do not employ women in this position. We must have Agents who are qualified to cope with any situation they may face.”
But just one year later, two women would be sworn as FBI agents for the first time. Now there is a big increase in female and minority hiring in the bureau.
Ford represents the first female minority to lead a task force in Rochester.
“The majority of the time I worked international terrorism as a case agent,” said Ford. “Now I'm working both international terrorism and domestic terrorism.”
She's encouraged by being the first woman in this particular position in Rochester.
“I feel good, I feel, I feel that the more diversity we have, and it has to be more diversity than just diversity of color or diversity of gender, really, it's about diversity of thought," Ford said. "I think the most unique thing I bring from my background isn’t that I'm a Mexican woman. It is that I'm a Mexican woman from a lower economic background.”
Special agents Berchtold and Ford encourage other women to believe in themselves and achieve their goals.
“Whether you're a woman, whether you are of color, whether you are a man, you if you set your mind to it, you can do it,” said Ford.
“Just push yourself to the point you do achieve what you want,” said Berchtold. “Never let that you're a female or a woman stand in your way because we can do everything that a guy can do and sometimes we can actually do it better.”