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Justice Department Agrees To Settle Sex Discrimination Claims for $22.6 Million

Thirty-four women filed a sex discrimination suit in 2019 against the FBI based on their experience in its training academy. Each woman passed the fitness, academic, and firearms tests at the Quantico training facility. They did not pass the final "tactical" element, which involved entering a house and confronting an armed attacker. The FBI then dismissed the women from the training. The women allege the instructors treated female candidates differently and said the academy ran a "good-old-boy network." FBI training instructors allegedly created a sexually offensive and hostile work environment by telling inappropriate jokes and making sexual advances.

The Justice Department investigated these complaints in 2022. In its report, the DOJ said that female candidates received a "disproportionate number of performance citations and were dismissed at rates higher than expected based on their share of the population." The training academy employed fewer female tactical and defensive tactics instructors. The report substantiated the women's claims of a hostile work environment.

Following the report's release, the complainant's attorneys tried unsuccessfully to settle with the Justice Department. While the FBI did make some changes in response to the report, the women do not believe the FBI's changes were sufficient. Now, the DOJ has agreed to a $22.6 million settlement. In addition, two experts in Industrial Organizational Psychology will formally review the FBI's practices, policies, and procedures for Agent Trainees in Basic Training as part of the settlement. The women will also have the opportunity to redo their testing. If they graduate, the agency will place them in one of their top three choices, and they will receive a salary commensurate with their original graduation year. The FBI did not comment when the New York Times asked about the settlement.