Women have been integral to the Intelligence Community since its earliest days, yet for decades their contributions remained obscured—hidden not only by secrecy but also by policy and silence. In her recent book, The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA, author Liza Mundy brings these untold stories to light. She traces the journeys of pioneering women who entered the CIA at pivotal moments and helped shape the agency from within. From Eloise Page, the first female chief of station, to Lisa Harper, among the first women to rise into the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, Mundy weaves together a powerful narrative of trailblazers whose impact has long gone unrecognized. In this conversation, she shares how she uncovered and connected these remarkable histories of women in the Agency.
Liza Mundy is an American journalist, non-fiction writer, and fellow at New America Foundation. She has written a number of books and her writings have also appeared in The Atlantic, Politico, The New York Times, The New Republic, Slate, The Guardian, and The Washington Post. She is also known for Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II, which documents the work of thousands of female American codebreakers during World War II, including top analysts such as Elizebeth Friedman and Agnes Driscoll, lesser known but outstanding contributors like Genevieve Grotjan Feinstein and Ann Zeilinger Caracristi, and many others.
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