Women of the OSS and SOE
A digital humanities project
Women in War
World War II changed the way women participated in the military, particularly in the United States. Women entered the male-dominated field in higher numbers, and some armed forces opened to add women to their ranks. Despite breaking ground and making history, these women had to overcome sexism from colleagues both in office roles and out in the field. Pictured to the right are women of the secretarial staff of Station XII in the Research and Information Section of the SOE.
Women in the SOE
The SOE was more open to women than most of the military organizations at the time. Initially, these women were in offices and held roles such as decoder or typist as women were prohibited from the front lines.
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Eventual SOE director Colin McVean Gubbins believed that women could be agents like men. He wrote a letter encouraging Winston Churchill to allow the SOE to recruit women who spoke multiple languages and train them in weapons and how to avoid detection.
Women could be sent as couriers and wireless operators into occupied territories because they were often less conspicuous than men. Most of these women were sent as part of the F Section (in France) but had no protection under the 1929 Geneva Convention. The first two women were parachuted into France on September 24, 1942.
Women in the OSS
Women constantly faced men who held the belief that they didn't belong in the field. It was controversial to send a woman abroad and even more so to put her in a leadership role. Men did not want to take orders from women.
But during his trips to Europe, Donovan met with some of SOE's women agents and learned how beneficial these women were for the war effort. He believed that the OSS could employ women like the SOE.
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Most of the women who joined the OSS worked in the OSS offices, managing paperwork, typewriting, and organizing intelligence information. General Donovan called those women the "invisible apron strings." Other women defied those roles and went into the field serving as agents and wireless operators.
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General Albert Coady Wedemeyer, who served in Asia during the war, initially didn't believe women should be sent abroad and into the field. He changed his mind and later wrote, "The women proved to be invaluable" after seeing the women work in the Pacific theater.
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Female Spies
These women are just two examples of the espionage work women of the OSS and SOE were involved in. They are not completely representative, but they can provide a glimpse into the specifics of what women did as spies. There is space to add more women in the future.