Just three twelvemonth before , Joanne Pierce had been teaching history and economics to center - school day tyke at the Sisters of Mercy parochial school in Buffalo , New York . Now she wasfeedingammunition into M16 rifles while under fire as part of an armored personnel letter carrier in South Dakota . She was no longer Sister Pierce . She was Special Agent Pierce of the Federal Bureau of Investigation .
bullet train abridge through the sky overhead as Pierce and her fellow agents shin to reconstruct order between warring Amerindic factions at Wounded Knee in 1973 . Before it was over , tribal leader Russell Means would bechargedwith assaulting Pierce as he aimed his weapon toward the carrier and Pierce , who kept a cool head in the middle of the gunfight , would go on to be recognized as one of the female pioneer in the Bureau . For nearly a poop - century , she would serve the government agency , helping tear down the barricade that had observe women out of the credit line of tariff for 44 years . The destination was the same as in her convent years : to salve life . But , now , this nun buoy had a ordnance .
Pierce ( in the reddish dress ) arrives to be sworn in at FBI Headquarters in 1972.FBI
Pierce , who was carry in Niagara Falls , N.Y. , in 1941 , last out nearby for most of her schooling . She attended a Catholic mellow school and studied story at Medaille College in Buffalo , N.Y. Then , afterearninga master ’s academic degree in history from St. Bonaventure University , Pierce joined the Sisters of Mercy convent in 1960 and began a 10 - twelvemonth tour of duty as a history and economics instructor at various Catholic school in the area . As she near her thirtieth birthday , Pierce begin to contrast the demands of the convent against her desire to start and recruit a family . She realized the two were mismated and began to consider leaving .
One sidereal day , an FBI agentshowed upat school for vocation Clarence Shepard Day Jr. . Pierce heed as he described his line of work in law enforcement . She like the audio of it — a “ fresh adventure , ” she ’d later on say . She asked if any positions were overt .
Mostly clerical , the agent told Pierce . It was 1970 , and Bureau Director J. Edgar Hoover restricted Special Agent status to male applicant only ; no women had been seen on the forcesince1928 . Undeterred , Pierce left the convent and head for Washington , where she was hired as a investigator .
Her timing was causeless . President Richard Nixon had signed an society of nondiscrimination in 1969 , which was watch by the Equal Opportunity Act of 1972 . While Hoover strain to exempt the FBI from the sweeping societal changes , his death in May 1972 opened the threshold . Just a week after his expiry , Acting Director L. Patrick Grayissueda pressing release that pay for women to give for Special Agent position . They would be given no particular exemptions and would be asked to fulfill the same physical and academic requirements as their male counterparts : a college stage , and successful navigation of the brand - new FBI Academy in Quantico , Va.
Pierce was inform of the variety by a supervisor . She was say the reservation would be stringent and the job — if she get it — would be take . She apply .
Of the 45 wannabe to enroll at the Academy that summer , Pierce and former Marine Susan Roley were the only two female . Theytrainedfor a arduous two - mile rill , pull - ups , and firearms shooting , where Pierce learned how to address a .38 six-shooter , rifle , and shotgun . The two also bunked together during the 14 - week training course .
“ Sometimes I feel like I was an showing in a museum , ” she toldCBS This Morningin 2012 , “ because everybody wanted to say which one are you , the Marine or the nun ? ”
Both woman exit . Roley was assigned to the Omaha , Neb. leg , and though Pierce was hoping for Miami , when she control her designation , she had drawn St. Louis , Mo. It was n’t ideal , but Special Agent Pierce was officially quick for action at law .
FBI
Pierce just had time to get her bearings in St. Louiswhen she was deploy to Wounded Knee , S.D. , in 1973 . The town had been taken over by the American Indian Movement , which demanded the removal of rival Oglala tribal drawing card Richard Wilson and acknowledgment of American misconduct on aboriginal land . The monstrance would eventuallygrowto 71 days of tense , sometimes violent moving in , with the FBI and U.S. Marshals among the government forces air to defuse the situation .
Pierce ’s police squad was ordered to a barricade to calm a disturbance that quickly turned venomous . A sniper was firing at the roadblock , and agents — including Pierce — were in the line of credit of fire and seek tribute inside a carrier . Gunshots rang out for near an minute before the sniper was apprehended ; one agent sustained a minor injury . It was an uncensored introduction to the living of a Federal official .
From there , Pierce moved to Pittsburgh , Penn . , where she spent the majority of her career . Agents in her squad were take of a female person in the intermixture ; civilians were another story .
“ Initially , when you ’d go out and say you were from the FBI , you ’d get a look of disbelief , like you were kidding , " she tell theChicago Sun - Timesin 1996 . Once , Pierce was tasked with wrangle fugitives and military defector . One military man on the run had seen Pierce before fleeing ; he call the Bureau ’s power and screamed that he could n’t believe a woman was tag him . He feltinsultedthat he did n’t warrant a manly agent ’s tending .
Another time , Pierce and a manful agent entered a banking concern to question an employee — the secretary severalize the employee that “ a couple ” was there to see him . Pierce was also oftenmistakenfor a travel secretaire . Some suspect took a sarcastic glide path , telling Pierce she could “ nab them any time . ”
As more and more fair sex joined the force , Pierce became less of an rarity and more an example of a new normal . But something distract her . In five endeavor to be raise to a supervisory role between 1981 and 1987 , Pierce waspassed overevery clock time — let in pillowcase , she claimed , where the eventual hire was under - qualified . The only thing they had in coarse : all were manlike .
Pierce left the FBI in 1994 after 22 years of military service . She had finished her incumbency in Miami , seizing the boat and mansions of drug trader , and then a bank in Boca Raton , Fla. offered her in a occupation in audit investigation , which she accepted . In her persuasion , there was n’t opportunity for further advancement in the Bureau .
Pierce went a whole tone further , suingAttorney General Janet Reno in 1994 for discrimination . She ask for the difference in wage she would have gain had she been promoted and lawyer ’s fee ; the case was settled in 1996 under unrevealed terms .
At the time of the suit , the FBI was unable to comment on her retreat or her contribution to the Bureau . But in 2012 , for the 40thanniversary of her hiring , the agency profile both her and Susan Roney . Having hook up with a fellow federal agent , Michael Misko , in 1981 , she now buy the farm by Joanne Pierce Misko .
“ I honestly did n’t see myself as a groundbreaker , ” shesaidof her admittance into the Bureau , even though she was just one of two women sworn in that summertime in 1972 . Today , there areroughly2700 distaff agents in the line of business . And , furnish they have a college Department of Education and can stick out 20 week of grooming , nuns are still barren to apply .
Additional Sources:“Nun Turned Agent come back Historic Career in FBI,”The Buffalo News , September 18 , 1994 ; “ Women Agents delete FBI ’s Machismo,”The Chicago Sun - Times , November 9 , 1986 .
