Women spies

[AraberylScott]

Interesting look at women in MI6; the advantages and disadvantages of being female in this male dominated area.

www.ft.com/content/741772c0-ee76-4d3d-bfcd-4fabc1fb405d

that was an interesting read thanks

Glad you enjoyed it! This thread will autodestruct in 2 hrs, btw.

What an interesting read, really enjoyed it.

Hmmm. In the days when I was a freelance writer, that's exactly what I would have churned out had I been given the task of making up 2000 words on life as a female MI6 spy. Very predictable, particularly the photos. Wigs, alluring slender women in specs, posh handbags: very male gaze — and the text is so banal. The day to day reality of working undercover in the Middle East must be pretty awful.

I've always thought invisible post-menopausal women would make the best spies. No one looks twice at a woman in a fleece and sensible shoes.

My mother actually was a spy. Now I'm off to change back to my proper name.

Walks around block 3 times, looks in window reflection. Takes taxi to a random location, gets on 93 bus to Luton, slips off into the night.

Have you read Restless by William Boyd?

“I've always thought invisible post-menopausal women would make the best spies. No one looks twice at a woman in a fleece and sensible shoes.”

Wasn’t there a film/series with Victoria Wood with this theme?

They don't even look once never mind twice!

I'd pass unnoticed in most situations as long as i could keep my gob under control.

And i wear Crocs so if someone does actually look at me once they will immediately be repulsed by my footwear choice and avoid me like the plague.

" The life that I have
Is all that I have
And the life that I have
Is yours.
The love that I have
Of the life that I have
Is yours and yours and yours.
A sleep I shall have
A rest I shall have
Yet death will be but a pause.
For the peace of my years
In the long green grass
Will be yours and yours and yours."

Leo Marx - Christmas Eve 1943
Made famous by the film/book, Carve Her Name With Pride, the story of Violette Szabo who was a spy that was captured, tortured and killed by the nazi's.
Whenever mention of women spies is made, i always think of that poem.

MI5 were advertising on their website for prospective spies a while ago, there were 4 tests to be completed, I completed all with flying colours but am still waiting for someone to sidle up to me in maccy d's and leave a large brown envelope stuffed full of money and some cryptic clues but oh well.

fascinating article!
also love the shout out to Mumsnet (I remember the adverts - last year?)

”MI6 has tried targeting recent female university graduates and even posted an advert on Mumsnet, the online parenting forum, appealing for people with “creativity, insight, curiosity, empathy and intuition” to consider working as intelligence officers”

I love that poem. I didn't know the background, so thanks for explaining. Violette Szabo is simply awe-inspiring.

Leo Marx wrote original poetry for SOE operatives to use when coding their messages, as previously the SOE were using well
-known poems which made the messages extremely breakable. His book 'Between Silk and Cyanide' is completely gripping, though also a bit crazy.

Interesting interviews - the self-inflicted damage caused by excluding the talents of half of the population from consideration is ludicrous.

Patti, are you saying that you suspect the article of being a made up one?

I agree that the pictures were a little stereotyped and quite against the grain of the article. Invisible middle-aged women would make great spies.

Oh, that sounds worth checking out. Thank you!

I was once told the best spies are people that don't know they are spies.

How does that work?

I'm saying that MI6 isn't going to give much away, so there's no really concrete information in the article except that which is already in the public domain (such as the location of the London HQ). That means that it floats uneasily between journalism and the kind of thing someone would make up if they were writing a novel. The enticing little details that are mentioned — the wigs, the money stuffed in a handbag — are the kind of generic little details which may actually be involved in the work but are also tropes employed in every spy thriller you've ever read/ watched. Loads of cliches, nothing concrete. It might as well be made up.

I do think the images are really inappropriate: they are tapping into the fantasy of espionage rather than what, I imagine, is often extremely tedious or very uncomfortable work.