Women played important roles in British intelligence for over 100 years. They served as analysts, interrogators, and spies, worked in cryptography and at codebreaking even before they had the right to vote in Britain. During World War II, they ran agents and double-agents, and even managed intelligence archives.
Most carried their secrets to their graves, never revealing what they really did. Mistaken for stenographers, secretaries, typists, and receptionists, they were content for the misconceptions to serve further cover for their real activities. In intelligence, it paid to be underestimated.
