Addressing ‘This Woeful Imbalance’: Efforts to Improve Women's Representation at CIA, 1947–2014

Abstract

From the wartime Office of Strategic Services to the contemporary Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), women have played a key role in US national intelligence. Yet, aside from episodic attention to the especially colorful lives of individual spies or analysts, few resources have been available to assess the broader status and service of these women. On 30 October 2013, the Central Intelligence Agency released the document collection From Typist to Trailblazer: The Evolving View of Women in the CIA's Workforce, a set of declassified files related to women's employment at the agency. This essay places these documents – which include personnel files, interagency memoranda, and internal CIA surveys and studies – into their broader institutional and social contexts, arguing that, despite the slow pace of change, CIA has made significant progress in addressing sex discrimination within its ranks.

Acknowledgements

A previous version of this essay appeared alongside the CIA document release From Typist to Trailblazer: The Evolving View of Women in the CIA's Workforce, which took place on 30 October 2013 at Smith College. The essay was included in the booklet that accompanied this event. An electronic version of the booklet can be found on the CIA's website for the document collection < http://www.foia.cia.gov/typisttrailblazer/> by selecting ‘Start’ and then ‘Booklet’. Approximately 100 copies of the booklet were distributed at the release event.

Notes

¹ National Women's History Museum < www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/spies/14.htm> (accessed 17 March 2014).

² Elizabeth P. McIntosh, Sisterhood of Spies (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press 1998) p.11.

³ ‘The Petticoat Panel: A 1953 Study of the Role of Women in the CIA Career Service’, 2003-03-01.pdf. All From Typist to Trailblazer documents can be accessed at < http://www.foia.cia.gov/collection/typist-trailblazer> (accessed 17 March 2014).

⁴ See Judith L. Pearson, The Wolves at the Door: The True Story of America's Greatest Female Spy (Guilford, CT: Lyons Press 2005). The present collection also includes ‘Virginia Hall Goillot Fitness Report’, From Typist to Trailblazer: 1965-04-22.pdf.

⁵ McIntosh, Sisterhood of Spies, p.218. The US Navy program ‘Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service’ (WAVES, officially designated the US Naval Reserves [Women's Reserves]) and the Army's Women's Army Corps (WACs) were created in 1942 to allow women to aid in the war effort.

⁶  < https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2007-featured-story-archive/julia-child.html> (accessed 17 March 2014).

⁷ McIntosh, Sisterhood of Spies, p.217.

⁸ Quoted in Tom Brokaw, The Greatest Generation (NY: Random House 1998) p.301.

⁹ For a more extensive discussion, see Margaret F. Reid et al., Glass Walls and Glass Ceilings (London: Praeger 2003) pp.111–13.

¹⁰ ‘Career Employment of Women in the Central Intelligence Agency’, From Typist to Trailblazer: 1953-11-01.pdf. Figures for federal employment are from 1947; those for overall US employment are from 1952.

¹¹ Ibid.

¹² Ibid.

¹³ ‘The Petticoat Panel: A 1953 Study of the Role of Women in the CIA Career Service’, From Typist to Trailblazer: 2003-03-01.pdf.

¹⁴ Ibid.

¹⁵ Ibid. Total employment numbers and breakdown by sex remain classified.

¹⁶ Ibid.

¹⁷ ‘The Petticoat Panel: A 1953 Study of the Role of Women in the CIA Career Service’, From Typist to Trailblazer: 2003-03-01.pdf. Emphasis added.

¹⁸ Ibid.

¹⁹ Allen W. Dulles, The Craft of Intelligence (Guilford, CT: Lyons Press 2006) pp.172–3.

²⁰ ‘Career Employment of Women in the Central Intelligence Agency’ (the ‘Petticoat Panel Report’), From Typist to Trailblazer: 1953-11-01.pdf.

²¹ Ibid.

²² McIntosh, Sisterhood of Spies, p.242.

²³ Ann Wright, ‘Breaking through Diplomacy's Glass Ceiling’, Foreign Service Journal, October 2005.

²⁴ Ibid.

²⁵ Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, TheFBI: A History (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press 2007) p.216.

²⁶ Keith Jeffrey, The Secret History of MI6 (NY: The Penguin Press 2010) p.639 n.20.

²⁷ Ibid., pp.639–40.

²⁸ Stella Rimington, Open Secret (London: Arrow Books 2001) pp.90–1.

²⁹ US Code 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2. The Act provided partial exemptions to the federal government under Title VII.

³⁰ ‘Recruitment Division Report on the Status of Women’. From Typist to Trailblazer: 1971-07-06.pdf.

³¹ Ibid.

³² ‘EEO Program and Related Data Concerning Female and Minority Employees’, From Typist to Trailblazer: 1972-03-17.pdf.

³³ Ibid.

³⁴ McIntosh, Sisterhood of Spies, p.242.

³⁵ ‘Women Employees Enhancement Concepts’, From Typist to Trailblazer: 1972-11-22.pdf.

³⁶ ‘Comparison of Grade Distribution of Men and Women’, From Typist to Trailblazer: 1973-12-11.pdf.

³⁷ ‘Memo re Federal Women's Program Board Update’, From Typist to Trailblazer: 1982-02-26.pdf.

³⁸ ‘Summary of the Problems of Women for DDCI's Discussions with Managers’, From Typist to Trailblazer: 1977-05-27a.pdf.

³⁹ ‘DOJ Task Force on Sex Discrimination’, From Typist to Trailblazer: 1978-01-06.pdf.

⁴⁰ Ibid.

⁴¹ Ibid.

⁴² ‘Memo re Final Agency Decision on Discrimination Complaint Case’, From Typist to Trailblazer: 1979-03-01.pdf.

⁴³ Ibid.

⁴⁴ Ibid.

⁴⁵ ‘Meeting of DCI with Congressional Women's Caucus’, From Typist to Trailblazer: 1978-7-20.pdf.

⁴⁶ Ibid.

⁴⁷ US House of Representatives < http://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/WIC/Historical-Data/Women-Representatives-and-Senators-by-Congress/> (accessed 17 March 2014).

⁴⁸ ‘Suggestions for DCI from Congressional Women's Caucus’, From Typist to Trailblazer: 1978-07-21.pdf.

⁴⁹ ‘Memo re Congressional Women's Caucus Suggestions’, From Typist to Trailblazer: 1978-08-16.pdf.

⁵⁰ ‘Workforce Trends in Grade Distribution 1980–2009’, From Typist to Trailblazer: 2010-09-01.pdf.

⁵¹ ‘Projected Activities for CIA Federal Women's Board for 1984’, From Typist to Trailblazer: 1983-12-15.pdf.

⁵² ‘Glass Ceiling Study Summary’, From Typist to Trailblazer: 1992-01-01.pdf.

⁵³ Ibid.

⁵⁴ Ibid.

⁵⁵ US Merit Systems Protection Board, Women in the Federal Government: Ambitions and Achievements, May 2011, p.6.

⁵⁶ ‘Glass Ceiling Study Summary’, From Typist to Trailblazer: 1992-01-01.pdf.

⁵⁷ Ibid.

⁵⁸ Ibid.

⁵⁹ ‘DCI Gates, Glass Ceiling Assessment’, From Typist to Trailblazer: 1992-04-21.pdf.

⁶⁰ ‘Implementation of Glass Ceiling Study’, From Typist to Trailblazer: 1992-08-10.pdf.

⁶¹ ‘Implementation of the Glass Ceiling Study’, From Typist to Trailblazer: 1992-08-10.pdf.

⁶² ‘Ruocco Comments on Glass Ceiling Study’, From Typist to Trailblazer: 1992-8-24a.pdf.

⁶³ ‘Hirsch Comments on Implementation of Glass Ceiling Study’, From Typist to Trailblazer: 1992-08-25.pdf.

⁶⁴ ‘Moffett Comments on the Implementation of Glass Ceiling Study’, From Typist to Trailblazer: 1992-08-21a.pdf.

⁶⁵ Six separate files included in the Typist to Trailblazer release document some of these meetings.

⁶⁶ ‘Special EXCOM Meeting Minutes for Glass Ceiling Study Action Plan’, From Typist to Trailblazer: 1992-11-23.pdf.

⁶⁷ ‘Workforce Trends in Grade Distribution 1980–2009’, From Typist to Trailblazer: 2010-09-01.pdf.

⁶⁸ ‘The Petticoat Panel: A 1953 Study of the Role of Women in the CIA Career Service’, From Typist to Trailblazer: 2003-03-01.pdf.

⁶⁹ ‘DAG Report on Women in Leadership’, From Typist to Trailblazer: 2013-03-19.pdf, p.4.

⁷⁰ Greg Miller, ‘At CIA, the Glass Ceiling Shows its Cracks’, Washington Post, 10 November 2011 < http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/checkpoint-washington/post/at-cia-the-glass-ceiling-shows-it-cracks/2011/11/10/gIQAjEm38M_blog.html> (accessed 17 March 2014).

⁷¹ ‘SIS Promotions’, From Typist to Trailblazer: 2012-01-01.pdf.

⁷² ‘Director's Advisory Group on Women in Leadership’, From Typist to Trailblazer: 2012-01-02.pdf.

⁷³ ‘Update on the Director's Advisory Group on Women in Leadership’, From Typist to Trailblazer: 2012-01-03.pdf.

⁷⁴ ‘DAG Report on Women in Leadership’, From Typist to Trailblazer: 2013-03-19.pdf. Emphasis in original.

⁷⁵ Ibid., p.2.

⁷⁶ ‘Watching “Zero Dark Thirty” with the CIA: Separating Fact from Fiction’, American Enterprise Institute panel, 29 January 2013 < http://www.aei.org/files/2013/01/31/-event-transcript_111915959376.pdf> (accessed 17 March 2014).

⁷⁷  < https://www.cia.gov/about-cia/leadership> (accessed 17 March 2014).

⁷⁸ Dr Ruth A. David (1995–8) and Joanne O. Isham (2000–1) < https://www.cia.gov/news-information/press-releases-statements/press-release-archive-2000/pr01122000.html> (accessed 17 March 2014).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Brent Durbin

Brent Durbin is Assistant Professor of Government at Smith College, where he teaches courses in US foreign policy, strategic intelligence, military conflict and culture, and international relations. He holds a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, and has held research fellowships at Stanford University, the University of Cambridge, and the George Washington University. He is currently completing a book manuscript analyzing the politics of US intelligence reform.