Intelligence world and espionage are always identical as men's world. Especially in British history, the Second World War was became a major turning point for women participation in intelligence world. Initially, women are considered not capable working in intelligence service because women tend to bring emotion to work and bound their loyalty more to family rather than to the country.(1)
However, as men enlisted to the war, intelligence services started to employed women in intelligence work as auxiliaries job. There are three intelligence branches where women involved during the Second World War: human intelligence (HUMINT), signal intelligence (SIGINT), and imagery intelligence (IMINT). All of the three branches are capable to help British and Allies to win the war.
Virginia Hall is one of the British spies in HUMINT who deployed to France during the Second World War. Virginia Hall is a great example to prove that women are also capable working as spies. She helped to facilitated escape lines for stranded British secret agents.(2) During the Second World War, Bletchley Park was became of one the important British SIGINT effort to win the war. Joan Murray worked together with Alan Turing in breaking the U-boat Enigma cyphers.(3) In IMINT, working as picture interpreters (PI) need a very attention to details, that is why women considered to do better in IMINT than men because their patience and attention to detail.(4)
There are many more women spies in history who has a great role during the Second World War. However, their existence and histories are still limited to public and so public awareness about women involvement in intelligence also still limited. During the Cold War until recent days, women who work in intelligence services are increasing, however women still have their struggle to work in modern intelligence world because of their gender.
References:
(1) Proctor, Tammy M. "Family Ties in the Making of Modern Intelligence." Journal of Social History 39, no. 2 (2005): 451-466. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3790777.
(2) Vigurs, Kate. Mission France: The True History of the Women of SOE. London: Yale University Press, 2021.
(3) Smith, Michael. WWII Codebreakers and Spies. Welbeck Publishing Group, 2019.
(4) Halsall, Christine. Women of Intelligence: Winning the Second World War with Air Photos. Gloucestershire: Spellmount, 2012.
- Picture Source: https://www.history.com/news/female-allied-spy-world-war-2-wooden-leg