Has there ever been a female spy? Upon the founding of the CIA, women were not inducted as butt-kicking spies, but as typists or ciphers to decode foreign messages– though women have been doing spy work long before the CIA’s foundation. Think of the American Revolution and the wives of soldiers off at war. Women contributed on the backlines just as much as soldiers on the front lines through spy work. As housewives– the sole breadwinners, cleaners, cooks, and money makers– they’d gather up the clean laundry and hang it outside on a clothesline in order to pass warnings along to allies. “Women commonly held secret messages in the layers of their clothing or tied intelligence documents inside the ribbons in their hair” (Martin 100). These deceptive damsels of American history, who united for the greater good of their country, resemble an agency of intelligence that carried central information, resources, and spirit throughout our nation’s greatest battles.

     Anna Smith Strong, an American patriot during the Civil War and the only female member of the Culper Spy Ring, developed the coded communication clothesline using her family’s laundry. She added specific articles of clothing to signal warnings or directions to safe spots (“Revolutionary Spies”). Housewives were among the first key collectors of intelligence because no one suspected them of understanding military language, suspected them as smugglers, or suspected them as spies. In other words, men had conservative views of women that allowed them to think less and speak freely around them. Throughout history, women have always played roles in the art of deception “because of their disarming, nurturing, and non-threatening nature” (Martin 105). Women were able to work right under enemy noses because they and their abilities were looked over and disregarded as intelligent enough to do so.

      True womanhood was coined during the American Civil War when women turned their heads away from their household chores and enlisted as infantry or nurses. Just like in the American Revolution, men did not predict the wit of a woman who wore tight corsets and petticoats to be infiltrating enemy lines. “Their huge circumference and sturdy frames allowed for all manner of things to dangle unnoticed next to their underclothes, which meant a lady could smuggle all sorts of things over the picket lines – and did” (“Dangerous Establishments”). And what man would be crass enough to look under a lady’s skirt without being whacked by her parasol? Confederate Sympathizer Rose O’Neal Greenhow would signal in Morse code to soldiers across the Potomac River using her hand-held fan. On top of using household items like eggshells, jam jars, or doll heads to smuggle messages, some even baked ammunition into loaves of bread (“Dangerous Establishments”).

     Thus, some of the very first players in espionage were women. It was just as dangerous a job as marching into battle and many women thought it their civic duty to assist their country and protect their homes. In wartime, women around the country banned together to supply soldiers with food, clothing, and supplies, even if it meant filling their bloomers with rations. Thousands traded in their dresses for uniforms and fought in brigades disguised as men. Years later when America’s Central Intelligence Agency was formed after WWII, women still were present in spy work. Though they were not inducted as butt-kicking spies, women played huge roles in code-breaking work on nazi ciphers or volunteered in the Special Operations Executive– so if we were to take notes on how to be a spy, we’d take notes from a woman.

 

 

Works Cited

 

Jones, Abagail. “Women of the CIA: The Hidden History of American Spycraft.” Newsweek, 21 September 2016,         Accessed 19 September 2022.

 

Martin, Amy J. “America’s Evolution of Women and Their Roles in the Intelligence Community.” Journal of           Strategic Security, 3 November 2015, vol. 8, no. 3, 2015, pp. 99–109. JSTOR, Accessed 19 September 2022.

 

Raja, Tasneem. “The Secret History of CIA Women.” Mother Jones, Accessed 19 September, 2022.

 

“Revolutionary Spies.” National Women's History Museum, 9 Nov. 2017, Accessed 19 September 2022.

 

“Dangerous Embellishments: Women Spies in the Civil War.” Clara Barton Museum, 15 Oct. 2018, Accessed 19           September 2022.