As an intelligence officer, if you don't have a security clearance, you really don't have a job. My military position was, and has been, frozen, for four years.

It really felt like a tidal wave of bias washed over our country and we're still soaked in it.

I'm 100 percent serious. I've been fighting for equality for women's issues my entire life, in the military included.

I had been sort of a rising star - an athlete, a scholar, a leader. My dream was to become a high-level national security adviser.

It's part of the reason I decided to speak out now. This was the tipping point for me. If it's O.K. for [David Petraeus ] to campaign for a job in the administration, then I'm going to campaign to get back out there, too.

We had to communicate through our lawyers a couple of times over the years, and [David Petraeus] told me that people have been like, "Good job, Dave." Congratulating him. That's the double standard. I've concluded that sharing it won't change anything.

Sometime ago, I teamed up with a former Marine attack helicopter pilot. We were both frustrated by biased coverage of women in the military and said, let's form some kind of nonprofit entity where we can start highlighting the prevalence of bias in the media.