May 1, 2023
Women have worked for the CIA since its inception in 1947. Initially not deemed capable of spycraft, they held low-level positions that allowed them to move quietly through foreign capitals, collecting secrets and soon building the CIA archives. Eventually, they did become spies; it was female CIA analysts who first warned about Al Qaeda and tracked down Osama Bin Laden. The New York Times best-selling Mundy (Code Girls) tells their story. Prepub Alert.
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August 1, 2023
With painstaking research, an award-winning journalist reveals the crucial roles undertaken by women in the intelligence arena. The Cold War and, later, the war on terror were conflicts fought in the shadows, a deadly game meant to prevent large-scale conflict. However, there was another battle conducted within the CIA: the struggle of women within the organization who had to fight sexism and discrimination to have their voices heard. Mundy covered related ground in her acclaimed 2017 book, Code Girls, but this book features a much larger canvas. The story spans seven decades, from the establishment of the CIA to the assassination of Osama bin Laden. Many highly qualified women applied to serve in the fledgling CIA, but those who made it through the grueling selection process usually found themselves shunted into typing and filing jobs. There was a culture of toxic masculinity in the organization, and women were often seen as little more than objects. Nevertheless, some managed to work their ways into field operations. They proved to be remarkably good at the tradecraft of spying, but there was little recognition from superiors. At the same time, women were doing critical tasks in intelligence analysis, and this group stepped into a new role when the threat of terrorism emerged. It required interpreting scraps of information, from financial transactions to the movement of dangerous radicals. Few people in the senior echelons of the CIA, however, were interested in their reports on Islamic militants. After 9/11, there were attempts to elbow the women out of the picture, but they managed to continue their work, eventually tracking down bin Laden. Mundy is able to keep the sprawling narrative and huge cast on track, drawing on interviews and declassified records. The result is a vivid, compelling, and important book. Another winner from Mundy, who tells a story that deserves to be told about women who deserve to be remembered.
COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Starred review from August 1, 2023
Mundy continues to chronicle the stories of unsung women heroes, following the best-selling Code Girls (2017) with a galvanizing group biography of exceptionally talented and tough women who excelled at the CIA in spite of its entrenched sexism. Brimming with startling, intriguing, and infuriating facts and insights, this arresting and suspenseful expos� is rooted in extensive interviews and research as exacting as that conducted by the brilliant women analysts Mundy profiles. When the CIA was established in 1947, highly educated women were hired only for menial positions, yet ultimately they built "the classified data base that became the foundation of the agency's modern high-tech tracking technologies." Mundy discusses why women make good spies, how they fought their way up through the ranks, and how women were undervalued to the point of disaster when the men in charge refused to listen to women in the know, such as when women agents recognized the significant threat of al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden long before 9/11. Circling among her colorful, courageous, and determined subjects, Mundy tells their dramatic stories over time and tracks the coalescence of their sisterhood as they battled for their rights. Every page is electric with revelations as Mundy vividly and perceptively portrays the remarkable women who covertly elevated this complicated, controversial, yet essential government agency.
COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
October 23, 2023
Drawing on more than 100 interviews with former CIA operatives, journalist Mundy (Code Breakers) demonstrates in this eye-opening survey that female operatives have made important contributions to the agency from its 1945 founding to the present day, despite facing decades of discrimination. Mundy shows how, in the CIA’s early years, most women agents hoped to enter the exciting world of undercover intelligence, but instead were systematically sidelined into positions as secretaries, typists, and similar support roles. Sexual harassment and office sex were also common, at least through the 1980s. And yet, Mundy makes clear, women agents were often able to obtain and analyze information that their male counterparts could not. For example, a woman perceived as a secretary or housewife could attend events and listen to important conversations without being suspected of spying. Likewise, female agents trapped at desk jobs in “analysis” and “targeting” departments made tremendous advances in those fields; Mundy recounts the story of Cindy Storer, who as a senior analyst in 1992 was the first at the CIA to realize that Osama bin Laden should be considered a serious threat. But Mundy is no hagiographer; her evenhanded account tracks how women’s growing influence led to increased opportunities for abuses of power, including analyst Alfreda Bikowsky’s exuberant support for the “enhanced interrogation techniques” used against terrorism suspects after 9/11. It adds up to a vivid and immersive new history of the CIA.