THE SECRET HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE CIA

November 07, 2013
 

Photo: CIA Archive Source: Supplied

 

NEWLY released interviews with female CIA officers have given us a rare window into the lives of women in America's ultra-secretive intelligence agency. 

The four female officers began their CIA careers as entry-level typists, but worked their way up during the 1960s and 70s to reach the highest ranks of the organisation. Along the way, they gathered crucial intelligence using methods that were impossible for male agents to replicate.

One agent, called only "Carla", says an enemy operative once told her about a plot to destroy an embassy because he thought she was "just a woman who wasn't very bright".

"He would seek me out. 'Oh, could we talk?' He would tell me, 'I just love talking to you because you're not very bright'," Carla says.

"And I would just sit like this (innocent expression) ... But it worked. He told me about a plot to bomb the embassy and we arrested him and his gang of merry men as they crossed the border.
"He just told me everything and I got tons of intel out of him because I was just a woman who wasn't very bright."

Carla joined the agency in 1965. She retired in 2005 after becoming Deputy Chief of the CIA's Africa Division.

Female agents got to use James Bond style gadgets, hidden in dresses and accessories. Pic: CIA Archive Source: Supplied

 

Another female agent, Meredith, began her CIA career as a "contract wife" who worked as a secretary to support her husband. By the time she was interviewed, Meredith was Deputy Chief of the European Division.

She believes women were better than men at picking out foreign agents.

"I always said if I ever wrote a book, I would start it with 'You could tell 'em by their socks'," Meredith said.

"With all the (redacted) having such horrible clothes and horrible shoes and socks, the surveillants had good ones," she said. "That would never occur to my husband to look at."

Female agents often worked undercover with James Bond style gadgets, The Daily Mail reports. Bugs were implanted into compact mirrors and evening gowns.

This is a “make-up compact concealment device”. Pic: CIA Archive Source: Supplied

 

This information all comes from a collection of 120 documents released by the CIA on October 30, entitled "From Typist to Trailblazer: The Evolving View of Women in the CIA's Workforce". Most of these documents have never been seen by the public before.

The agency is trying to demonstrate how far women have advanced through its hierarchy over the last few decades.

Today almost half of the CIA's top-level employees are women, including the agency's Deputy Director Avril Haines, who was appointed by President Barack Obama in August.

Women have come a long way in the CIA since this photo was taken. Pic: CIA Archive Source: Supplied

http://www.news.com.au/world/the-secret-history-of-women-in-the-cia/story-fndir2ev-1226755082951