How Women Became Central to the Central Intelligence Agency
Article/Op-Ed in In the Room with Peter Bergen
June 4, 2024
In Episode 57 of his podcast "In the Room with Peter Bergen," New America Vice President and ASU Professor of Practice Peter Bergen examines the history of women at the CIA.
When the CIA got started in 1947 it recruited women for one type of job: typing and filing. Very few women were out in the field gathering intelligence and recruiting foreign agents. But once they finally got the chance, they proved instrumental to obtaining secret codes and tracking down terrorists - despite sometimes facing discrimination and harassment. Women also found ways to use gender stereotypes to their advantage in their spycraft. Peter speaks with a former agent who entered the CIA in 1968, another who got her start just before 9/11, and the author of The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA.
Listen to the episode on Audible, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcasts.