( CNN ) -- Is the Colombia prostitution scandal rocking the Secret Service an isolated incident ? Or is it evidence of a debauched organizational culture that permeates the entire agency when its agents are out of the country and do n't think anyone is watching ? This is the question that has been on everyone 's mind as word leaked out last week about a similar incident involving the Secret Service and some military personnel in El Salvador before President Barack Obama 's trip there in March . On Thursday , an unnamed source told the Washington Post that such behavior was part of the Secret Service culture . The implications are serious indeed . Paying prostitutes for sex is , of course , sordid , immoral and pretty embarrassing in and of itself . However , if in fact the men in the agency charged with protecting the president and other important government officials when they are abroad have a history of cavorting with prostitutes -- in a culture that says it 's OK -- the problem goes way beyond embarrassment . This whole business may be news to the American public , but if it is really part of the culture it is n't news to those who wish us harm . In the decade since the September 11 attacks , we have come to understand that the shady world of terror is inextricably bound up with the shady world of illegal activity . How many `` prostitutes '' are also foreign agents or terrorist operatives ? How many others are simply willing to make money , first by selling themselves and then by selling whatever they find in the bedrooms of American government personnel to someone who is up to no good ? This is not a problem that can be solved by the passage of new laws or by moving the boxes around on an organization chart . Even the swift action taken to remove the offenders from their jobs , and to revoke the security clearances of others will not offer much of a deterrent once memories of the scandal fade and some new outrage surfaces to dominate the news . Ordinarily , changing an organization 's culture is pretty hard work . But when the culture in need of change is a macho culture where good old-fashioned debauchery and `` boys being boys '' is OK as long as no one gets caught -- the solution is pretty straightforward : Hire more women . Is n't it funny how having to work alongside a woman who , for instance , knows your wife -- seems to inhibit old fashioned male fun ? We 've seen this before . Tales from the 1960 presidential campaign plane can be summarized by the motto : `` Wheels up , rings off ! '' ( As in wedding rings . ) From the candidate on down , the inhabitants of the hard-drinking , virtually all-male world of politicians , and the reporters who wrote about them , covered for each other and kept things private for years . Today 's campaign plane has been cleaned up a lot -- from the candidates to the reporters -- and the most important reason is that there are now a fair number of women on the plane , as both advisers with real power and reporters with real power . Can you imagine the kind of debauchery that was standard operating procedure 50 years ago being tolerated by Beth Meyers , the influential , longtime aide to Mitt Romney who has the important job of heading his vice presidential search ? Years ago the only women around were young women with no power . They were often the victims of a bad culture . Today there are middle-aged women with real power . They are not victims of the all male culture -- they change it . I know this has happened in politics , I saw it myself coming into the business at the end of the old era . And I suspect it has happened in other professions , as well . Do advertising executives still woo clients with multiple martinis and high-class call girls , a la `` Mad Men '' ? Maybe . But I suspect the presence of lot of powerful women in that business has reduced the overall level of debauchery . If there does turn out to be a culture of debauchery in the Secret Service , it will not come as a surprise . After all , the `` protection professions , '' if you will -- Secret Service , police , military -- are among the last professions to be overwhelmingly male . And yet , as we 've seen in the military , when technology takes over from muscle , women start to do the same things as men . In the workplace they begin to go where only men used to go . And outside of the workplace ? Well , it 's hard to imagine an organization where the women head out to a brothel together . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Elaine Kamarck .
Elaine Kamarck : The Trump administration is trying to make it harder for people who are in the country illegally — and especially those with children born here of undocumented parents — to get driver’s licenses. She says terrorists could easily know if that 's the case and exploit agents ' vulnerabilities . She says changing culture by adding more women could help . Kamarck : Presence of women in powerful jobs has pushed back at macho misbehavior .