Articles

Celine parachuted into France ten days before D-Day to courier and train maquis groups in weaponry behind the lines (Invisible Women Episode 7). In …

As I landed in Northern Ireland rain was running across the plane’s windows and although the ground scape looked rather bleak, the old wooden …

Are women agents better at remaining silent than their male counterparts when interrogated? In 2005 I interviewed a retired Canadian operative …

Present day women writers are correcting the historical loss of women’s espionage narratives by crafting articles and books on the lives of WW 2 and …

On a recent fall trip to Nova Scotia, I stopped at the memorial for Mona Parsons, the only Canadian woman civilian to be imprisoned by the Nazis in WW …

Although I’ve written Invisible Women articles about American spies operating in the field (Martha Peterson and Elizabeth Bentley) during the Cold …

Elizabeth Bentley, an American, graduated from Vassar College in 1930 with a degree in languages. While completing a Master’s degree at Columbia …

Martha Peterson commented, “After we were married, he told me he had applied for the Central Intelligence Agency or CIA.” Her husband, like Lilian’s …

Liberté is a new short film written and acted in by Sam Naz (British broadcaster/actress) about the heroine, Noor Inayat Khan, a Special Operations …

I have been asked “Why did you spend eighteen months researching to locate World War 2 women espionage agents to interview, when there are some …

Michelle Corjon, a resistance fighter, was awarded France’s Croix de Guerre and the silver medal for French Resistance. She was the youngest member …

Operation Enormoz was a WW2 Soviet venture to recruit British and American spies who sympathised with communism. Although the Soviet Union had joined …

In WW 2 and the Cold War many ordinary U.K. and U.S. citizens were approached to become spies for the Soviet Union. The individuals who said yes did …

Cathay Williams was the first Black woman to become a soldier in the U.S Army and a Buffalo Soldier in the American Indian Wars. Although there were …

On the heels of Facebook’s announcement recently that Iranian spies were targeting U.S. medical, military and the technology sectors through social …

Марина Михайловна Малинина, Marina Mikhaylovna Raskova, photo circa 1938 Before WW 2 Major Marina Raskova was the first woman to be awarded the …

“Almost every time we had to sail through a wall of enemy fire,” Nadezhda Popova stated. She became the WW 2 deputy commander of the 588th Night …

The Nachthexen or Night Witches of WW 2, as the Nazis nicknamed them, would swoop down without a sound except for the momentary whooshing of their …

It was a lovely weekend on Bowen Island (Aug 7-8, 2021) to celebrate the island’s creative spirit and its local performers and writers of scripts, …

In 1777 George Washington wrote a letter to Nathaniel Sackett engaging him to organise an espionage network and to spy for the Continental Army. …

Women have been appointed to lead the Canadian Security Intelligence Service’s (CSIS), Toronto office; Katherine Hannah is head of Canada’s largest …

Photo: World War II Database Canadian spymaster Sir William Stephenson, known as Intrepid, who directed British Security Coordination for the …

There is a secret Iranian army on Facebook to surveil, steal and undermine U.S., European, and U.K. interests and products across all the major …

Hannah Szenes, while living in Palestine in 1943 and writing song lyrics/poetry volunteered for a Jewish commando unit. Like Liliana in IW …

In the late 1800s night spies in colonial Calcutta wrote about deviant women ~ their characteristics and where they went. Victoria Memorial in …

I’ll be part of the Write on Bowen Festival this year (2021) speaking about Invisible Women: The Podcast based on my …

The U.S. and the U.K have had ongoing mandates to increase the participation of women, those with disabilities and racial minorities in spy agencies …

The women agents I interviewed all went on to traditional lives post WW 2; wife/mother except one who found equality in …

Please support our nominations in the Podcast Awards The People’s Choice Podcast Awards is the longest running podcast award – this is their …

Andree (Dedee) de Jongh code name Postman, established the WW 2 “Comet Line” in 1940. It operated in Belgium and France to evacuate downed Allied …

Like Celine in Invisible Women Episode 7, Pearl Cornioley was recruited and trained in guerrilla warfare by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and …

María Anatol Arístegui also know as Maritxu was born in Spain and exiled with her family to France during the Spanish Civil War. (See this newsletter …

I Am Not Invisible (#IANI) focuses on highlighting and increasing the conversation about women veterans of which there are about 2 million in the U.S. …

Writing and presenting about women who perform in unexpected societal roles is always interesting for the writer and the audience. Linda Matchett will …

With the release of Invisible Women’s Episode 8, Heroine’s Journey, the podcast wraps up Season One. I will continue to post articles and updates on …

The CIA states that women make the best spies because of women’s intuition. Is this an outdated societal expectation or is this statement based on …

Since more countries, companies and politicians are relying on private investigators or spies to collect sensitive information, it is becoming …

In 1968 Janine Brookner was enrolled in the CIA’s secretive operations training program. She was one of 6 women registered, and although she knew that …

In the Second World War 600,000 Canadian women stepped up to help the war effort. One of them was Elizabeth (Elsie) MacGill, the first female …

In 2004/5 when I was interviewing women agents from the WW 2 era, I was also capturing the experiences of others in intelligence and/or WW 2, to …

Diana de Rosso was an Anglo-Italian opera singer and a courier for the Allied Forces in Europe. Having grown up in the south of France with a …

The adventuresome and talented Nadezhda Plevitskaya was born in a Russian village in 1884. Being one of 11 children she was placed in a nunnery which …

Kathleen (Kay) Moore was born in 1914 in Alberta, Canada. In 1936, graduating university in French language and literature, she went to study in Paris …

Although Ireland remained neutral during WW 2 some of the Irish did not. A plaque at the Irish College in Paris commemorates 50 Irish women and men …

As in all wars, women are imperative in overcoming the enemy and this is also true of the U.S. Civil War in which hundreds of women were successful …

As we store our private information, intellectual property, wealth and secrets in cyberspace, it becomes crucial to recognise the bad actors who are …

Mona Louise Parsons, a young Canadian woman from Nova Scotia was imprisoned by the Nazis in WW 2 for four years. Before the war, she was an …

Maria Krystyna Janina Skarbek, also known as Christina Granville was originally from an old aristocratic family in Poland which had a history of …

Serious national security threats including violent extremism and foreign interference increased substantially in Canada in 2020. This included …

Red Widow by Alma Katsu, a former female Operations Officer, is receiving high praise from retired senior CIA Cipher Brief expert, Alison …

In Judy Batalion’s book, The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos she provides in-depth details into …

Born in what is now Arizona/New Mexico in the 1840’s Lozen was a ‘shield for her people’. Not interested in the traditional roles of Apache …

“If you can see it, you can be it.” the National Portrait Gallery in London, has partnered with Chanel Culture Fund in a three-year project called, …

In the county of East Sussex, town of Bexhill, was a unique college from 1932 to 1939 — a Nazi’s girls’ school called the Augusta Victoria College …

Noor Inayat Khan was a Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent in France during WW 2. Due to her fluency in French, unflappable character and …

At 25 years old, Lyudmila Pavlichenko, was already a highly decorated Soviet sniper and lieutenant from the  Red Army’s 25th Chapayev Rifle Division …

Virginia Hall was a tenacious, strategic and adventuresome WW 2 agent. Being American born, wealthy and having studied languages in Europe, she freely …

Re-examining western cultural history is imperative to revisioning ourselves today. For instance, new archeological techniques are challenging long …

Soon to be released in English, Amazons of the Mossad, reviews new intelligence information including the identities of some women agents. Sarah …

Women spies for King Charles 1 knew how to letter-lock their communications so that these messages passed to him in secret. These expertly …

In 1925, Missouri-born Josephine Baker, left for Paris travelling with an all-Black troupe as an erotic dancer. She soon came to love France with the …

Eighty years post WW 2 and 70 years since Canada first passed the equal pay legislation, why does the power ratio of men to women still exist in the …

Invisible Women is celebrating International Women’s Day by releasing Episode 5 a few days early (on March 8) to coincide with IWD. It’s about the …

Jessie Jordon, a Scottish citizen, began spying for the Abwehr, the German military intelligence after marrying and living in Germany for a number of …

The Battle of the Somme is known as one of the bloodiest battles of WW 1. The British, French and their allies including Canadian soldiers were on one …

CIA and KGB Cold War espionage gadgets drew high bids recently in a Beverley Hills Auction. Peruse the list of interesting relics and their …

In 2017, Chloé Aeberhardt, a French journalist, released a book entitled, “Les Espionnes Racontent” about the stories of six female intelligence …

Nancy Wake, New Zealand born and SOE (Special Operations Executive) trained, was one of the few female agents who received wide acclaim for her WW 2 …

Harriet Tubman has been inducted into the Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame for her work as an intelligence operations specialist during the …

Last month the Indian Army warned its personnel against interacting with unknown Facebook and WhatsApp social media profiles, and specifically about …

Actor, Lorraine Toussaint, comments that it’s exciting to play the strong and clever Black female spy character, McCall in The Equailzer, a …

Spies posing as journalists is not new in espionage especially in first-world countries where political and economic information is desired, but it …

Although settling in the English countryside with three children and a husband, Ursula Kuczynski was a deep spy and colonel in the Red Army with a …

In 1944, Aline Griffith was sent to Spain by the OSS to search out Nazi sympathisers. She infiltrated Spanish society through high profile soirées and …

Before the CIA had women at the helm, a philanthropist and abolitionist, Elizabeth Van Lew (1818-1900), ran an underground spy network called the …

In 1918 when women were not considered as serious war correspondents, Marguerite Harrison, a journalist, linguist and adventurer turned to the U.S. …

Even prior to WW 2, Elizebeth Smith Friedman was indispensable to the U.S. government because of her unique perspective on patterns and language …

By 1944 and as the Nazis became more astute at discovering Allied male agents, the US Office of Strategic Services (OSS) working in France began using …

A powerful espionage agent from the WW 2 era, Lidia Menapace, who fought Fascists in Italy died in December 2020 at the age of 96 from Covid-19. …

Recently, I attended a virtual Smithsonian Institute seminar created by the American Women’s History Initiative called, Female Spies of World War II …

Women made excellent spies in WW 2 partly because of western gendered projections about them not being astute, strategic or creative enough to be a …

When mandatory spying, like mandatory military training is imposed on a country’s citizens, it has a direct impact on foreign countries and …

To do their job well, code breakers usually have different ways of perceiving and solving puzzles than most of us. The UK’s Government Communications …

Some western countries are being flooded by short and long-term spies who are planted by their enemies into the political and technological fabric of …

Richard Moore, the new head of the UK’s SIS, the Secret Intelligence Service, has put out a call for those with disabilities to join the intelligence …

From this article in the local Bowen Island newspaper, to listeners around the world. It’s gratifying to see the genuine and cross-cultural interest …

A Call to Spy, releasing this week, is a movie about three Special Operations Executive (SOE) women agents in WW 2 who were initially selected to spy …

“Female barristers say men-only club is symbolic of diversity problems within legal profession” and it is condoning an “invisible pattern of …

Women’s Spy Craft in WW 2, as discussed in Episode 2 (releases Dec. 11. 20), includes how women were selected, how they were trained and what types of …

President-elect Joe Biden has announced two women to the highest positions in U.S. intelligence, Avril Haines will be the director of national …

As in WW 2 when women were invited into work usually reserved for men, today women’s contributions are receiving greater acknowledgement through the …