Empires rise on military power, fall through politics, and often forget who was listening at the curtains.
For centuries, women have manoeuvred through the blind spots of power, not just with sabres or speeches, but with silence, memory, and nerve. They passed unnoticed through drawing rooms, command posts, checkpoints, and coded networks, those around them oblivious, thinking they lacked agency, but because no one thought to look for it. That miscalculation would cost kings, generals, and regimes dearly.
The history of espionage is filled with wars of assumptions. Women, often underestimated or dismissed, used those assumptions as cover. Be it sending encrypted signals from behind enemy lines, smuggling maps sewn into hems, or running entire spy networks under the noses of empires, they turned invisibility into strategy.
This is not a story about seduction or mystery. It is a story about control, about women who played by no one’s rules but their own. The silk stockings in the title? They weren’t props. They were part of the uniform.
The Misconception of the “Spy Mistress”
For centuries, the role of women in espionage was downplayed or romanticised. The trope of the seductress, think Mata Hari dancing through Parisian ballrooms, tended to dominate public imagination. But for every honey trap story, there were women cracking codes in underground bunkers, relaying messages across borders, and coordinating sabotage missions from resistance cells. Their work was often categorised as auxiliary, but the reality is far sharper: they were essential architects of intelligence history.
Ancient Beginnings
Women have been involved in espionage since ancient times. In the Old Testament, the figure of Rahab in Jericho is described as hiding Israelite spies and misleading her own people. Arthashastra by Chanakya details various categories of spies, including women, who were employed for different purposes. It mentions “Rasada” (poisoners) and “Bhiksuki” (women ascetics) as types of spies, highlighting their diverse roles. Ubhaya vetana were double agents, women who worked for multiple rulers, gathering information and potentially manipulating situations to benefit their primary allegiance.
In ancient China, Sun Tzu’s ‘Art of War’ explicitly recognises the value of female spies, categorising them as “inward agents” who could exploit social access to gain intelligence from enemy elites.
Throughout imperial history, women with access to courts, servants, concubines, and courtesans, often served as unofficial informants. Their proximity to power, coupled with a societal tendency to underestimate them, gave them a unique operational advantage.
World War I: The Rise of the Femme Fatale
Mata Hari: Illusion and Legend
No name is more synonymous with female espionage than Mata Hari, the Dutch exotic dancer turned alleged double agent during World War I. Born Margaretha Zelle, she captivated audiences with her sensual performances across Europe. But behind the veils and choreography, she was also in contact with German intelligence, although the extent of her actual espionage remains debated.
Executed by the French in 1917, Mata Hari’s trial was fraught with procedural flaws and sensationalism. While her guilt remains questionable, her legacy shaped the public’s perception of female spies as seductresses, dangerous, mysterious, and beautiful. This image would haunt serious women operatives for decades.
World War II: From Resistance to Reckoning
Nancy Wake: The White Mouse
Perhaps one of the most effective and least romanticised female spies of World War II was Nancy Wake, a New Zealand-born Australian who worked with the French Resistance and later the British Special Operations Executive (SOE). Known as the “White Mouse” for her ability to elude the Gestapo, Wake led thousands of resistance fighters in guerrilla warfare, blew up railway lines, and once cycled over 500 kilometres in 72 hours to replace a lost radio code.
Her physical courage and operational success were unmatched. She became one of the Allies’ most decorated women, earning medals from the UK, US, and France. But her greatest strength was her refusal to be typecast. “I hate wars,” she once said, “but if they come, I don’t see why we women should just wave our men a proud goodbye and then knit them balaclavas.”
Noor Inayat Khan: The Wireless Whisper
In contrast to Wake’s battlefield bravado, Noor Inayat Khan operated in quiet defiance. The daughter of an Indian Sufi mystic and an American mother, she was a musician and poet before joining the SOE as a radio operator. Deployed in France, she was the first female wireless operator sent into occupied territory.
Her job was one of the most dangerous: maintain radio contact with London while constantly moving and evading detection. Captured by the Gestapo after betrayal, she never revealed her codes or comrades, even under torture. She was executed at Dachau in 1944, aged just 30. Her last word was reportedly “Liberté.”
Cold War Intrigues: Invisible Architects of Influence
The Cold War brought new dimensions to espionage: psychological warfare, long-term infiltration, and the digital beginnings of intelligence. Women played pivotal roles, but again, often in the shadows.
Elizabeth Bentley: The Red Spy Who Turned
An American Soviet courier, Elizabeth Bentley, initially ran over 80 agents in the US government for Soviet intelligence. But after becoming disillusioned with Stalinism, she defected to the FBI in 1945 and exposed the largest Soviet spy ring uncovered in the US to that point. Her testimony rocked Washington, influencing the era’s deepening paranoia and the eventual McCarthy witch hunts.
Her case highlighted the double-bind of female agents: they could gain deep access through low visibility, but once discovered, their credibility was often questioned more aggressively than their male counterparts.
Melita Norwood: The “Most Important Soviet Spy”
Nicknamed the “granny spy”, Melita Norwood passed British atomic secrets to the Soviets for decades, all while working as a secretary for the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association. She was only unmasked in 1999, when she was in her eighties.
Norwood believed she was helping to preserve peace by ensuring nuclear parity. Her ideological commitment and the duration of her espionage mark her as one of the most significant female assets of the Soviet intelligence apparatus, though she was never prosecuted.
The Middle East and Asia: Hidden in Plain Sight
Yehudit Nesya: Mossad’s Chameleon
Israeli intelligence agency Mossad has long relied on women for undercover operations, especially in Arab nations where Western-looking women arouse less suspicion. Yehudit Nesya (alias used) participated in missions involving identity theft, psychological manipulation, and sabotage during Mossad’s operations to capture Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann and later during covert operations against Hezbollah.
Women in Mossad are not just field agents; they hold senior analytical, cyber-intelligence, and operational planning roles, reshaping gender assumptions in modern espionage structures.
South Asia’s Covert Women
India and Pakistan, with their long history of cross-border espionage, have their own legacy of female spies, though few names are officially recognised. One known figure is Noor Habibullah, an Indian Intelligence Bureau officer who operated under deep cover in Pakistan in the 1980s, feeding intelligence about military installations back to Delhi. Her story remains largely classified, but accounts suggest she was instrumental in revealing missile logistics in Balochistan.
Jyoti Basu: Women are Best in Domestic Roles? Truly…
Jyoti Basu played a silent but heroic role in India’s 1971 war against Pakistan, serving as a covert operative deep within enemy lines. Disguised as a maid in a Pakistani general’s home, she risked her life to gather critical intelligence that significantly shaped India’s military strategy. Raised in a family of nationalists, Jyoti’s sense of duty led her to volunteer for a perilous mission at the heart of Pakistan’s military establishment. With sharp instincts and an ability to remain undetected, she accessed vital documents and intercepted conversations that offered India an edge in the conflict. Her reports guided Indian commanders on enemy troop movements and planned offensives. Despite the constant risk of exposure, Jyoti’s dedication never wavered. Though her contributions remain unsung in the public domain, her legacy lives on as a symbol of courage and patriotism, reflecting the invisible yet vital role of women in India’s intelligence history.
Modern Frontlines: Cyber, Tech and Hybrid Warfare
Today’s espionage is no longer just about paper files and handoffs in cafés. With the rise of cyber warfare and hybrid threats, the field has been levelled even further. Women intelligence officers are leading in new arenas.
Gina Haspel: The Controversial Chief
In 2018, Gina Haspel became the first woman to lead the CIA. Her ascent was controversial due to her involvement in post-9/11 black site operations, but it also signalled a shift: women were no longer just in operational support, they were shaping doctrine.
Women in intelligence agencies now run cyber-ops, satellite surveillance, counter-terrorism cells, and diplomatic backchannels. Agencies like the NSA, MI6, R&AW, and DGSE are increasingly relying on female analysts and field agents, particularly in areas requiring psychological acuity and long-term infiltration.
Codebreakers, Couriers, and Unsung Operatives
Many of the most critical roles in wartime and peacetime espionage were neither glamorous nor violent. Women served as couriers, codebreakers, and translators. In Bletchley Park during WWII, over 75% of the staff were women. These were not simply typists, they were cryptanalysts, intercept officers, and information architects who helped crack Enigma and decipher enemy communications.
In the Vietnam War, North Vietnamese women acted as human intelligence couriers and jungle guides for the Viet Cong, often operating under extreme physical danger. In Afghanistan, female operatives in Western forces were embedded to gather intelligence from women in local communities; roles male officers could never play due to cultural norms.
The Psychological Edge
What made women effective in espionage often wasn’t seduction; it was being underestimated. Cultural gender norms allowed women to bypass security, extract information, and remain undetected. They were dismissed as wives, nurses, typists, rarely as threats. This invisibility was their shield.
Moreover, women agents often exhibited high emotional intelligence and observational acumen. Whether decoding body language at a dinner party or reading subtle shifts in tone, their tools were soft but effective.
Beyond the Stereotype
The story of women in espionage is not about romantic myths or dramatic deaths. It is about endurance, precision, and quiet courage. Their contributions were often obscured by gender bias or political agendas, but they shaped history in invisible ink.
The legacy of these women, whether codebreakers at Bletchley, resistance leaders in France, or digital analysts in Virginia, is not a footnote in the history of intelligence. It is the spine.
