Women's Involvement in Espionage

According to Merriam-Webster Online, an intelligence operation is the process by which governments, military groups, businesses, and other organizations systematically collect and evaluate information for the purpose of discovering the capabilities and intentions of their rivals. Highly sensitive information must derive from a clandestine collection, and generally falls into three categories: human intelligence, signals intelligence, and photographic intelligence. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was a U.S. agency created in 1942 during World War II …

…changed the way society views women today, but they also defied the traditional military appearance, saving thousands of lives and contributing a fair amount to the acclaimed Allied victory. As Thomas Powers stated, "The course of the Second World War was determined in part by intelligence failures and successes" (xx). After carefully analyzing the accomplishments of these illustrious women, one can easily conclude that such intelligence successes existed by way of these exemplary role models.