One secret the CIA can’t keep: they want women. And, it’s got them, from top to bottom. They’re everywhere in the agency. That’s lost on some. While rooting out terrorists, these agents have simultaneously been rooting out sexism and stereotypes and proving beyond any shadow of doubt—just like Army Capt. Ranger Capt. Kristen Griest and 1st Lt. Shaye Haver—that they’ll hunt you down and kill you just as quickly as any man. As Newsweek’s Abigail Jones writes, “Americans still have no concept of who’s keeping them safe—and that women play a critical role in that effort.”
Take a few minutes and get to know a veritable magnificent of seven women spies featured in Newsweek’s “Women of the CIA: The Hidden History Of American Spycraft.”
PROFILES IN COURAGE
As Valerie Plame Wilson explained a few days ago, these women joined for the same reason men do, because they come from families with long traditions of service, because they want to serve their country, because they’re after some adventure even as they mingle with some of the best colleagues you’ll ever find. In other words, they join for a lot of different reasons. As Plame puts it, the women she knew were “’smart and ambitious and funny, but to be very honest, they had stepchildren. They had not raised their own children. Or they were divorced. Or they went home to cats. They had really paid a personal price.’” Inside the CIA, they’re analysts and operators. They’re dedicated, committed professionals working to serve in spite of whatever impediments might be thrown in their way.
Consider Janine Brookner. Trained as an operator, her CIA boss in Asis put her behind the desk and a mountain of paperwork because, well, she’s a woman. So she did that work, but she also built an enviable collection of contacts during her off-time that her next boss would find invaluable. Brookner explains, “’I knew people from the presidential palace all the way to the Communist Party. I was in my 20s—this little blond woman. No one ever suspected who I worked for’ . . . . she infiltrated the Communist Party, recruited a Soviet bloc agent and became one of the CIA’s first female station chiefs . . . .” All that ended when some colleagues complained they’d been sexually harassed by Brookner. Read all about Janine Brookner’s fight in some mid-1990s editions of The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times. Spoiler alert: she’s still doing some great things for the agency.
For that matter, consider Maja Lehnus, Virginia Hall, Julia Child (yes, that Julia Child), Suzanne Matthews, Barbara Robbins (KIA), Monique Lewis (KIA), Jennifer Matthews (KIA), Tracey Ballard . . . . the list goes on and on.
CHANGING A CULTURE
Over the years, the CIA has worked hard, and fairly successfully, to change the culture and take full advantage of the talents of any qualified candidate. Nearly half the Agency are women. More than a third of its leadership are women. Still, it’s impossible to say that women = men at the CIA. That’s in part residual cultural problems, and it’s in part a product of simple lifestyles some women prefer (and, very likely, some men prefer, too). According to Jones, “Women are more likely than men to decline high-profile assignments—which are critical to advancement—because they require long, unpredictable hours.”
Gina Bennett explains of her own career, ““I have about seven years out of my career when I could not take certain assignments that were high-profile, incredibly demanding and involved travel . . . . So naturally, when you look at my depth and breadth of experiences compared to a man of my rank and age, you will see a disparity. You won’t see any points for the skills I gained being the mother of five.’”
There’s so much more to know, so much more to this remarkable story. Get a cup of coffee, settle down, and read all about them in Abigail Jones’s “Women of the CIA: The Hidden History Of American Spycraft.”
