![]() ![]() “The history of intelligence is usually analyzed within the framework of institutional history, which all too often conceals the generic features of intelligence work that points beyond its institutional backing. Writing about the integration of “the Other,” in this case the “feminine” into the originally male-only intelligence profession brought up methodological issues. “Hierarchy within the profession and progression are determined by gender, thus making sexism and gender-based discrimination intrinsic parts of this process on all levels.” “Intelligence work is a complex, structured process, within which the directing, supporting, and executive functions require different skills and expertise,” highlights Peto. “Women who worked for intelligence services attained little agency, their professional advancement was slow and difficult, just as with any other highly prestigious job, and they had to counter workplace discrimination the same way as their sisters in more ordinary occupations.” “For women, contrary to the exoticized representations in the media, intelligence work has always been like any other form of paid employment: over time they were gradually integrated into the field, with the level of their involvement an accurate reflection of the level of women’s general emancipation in a given society,” Peto notes. Developed by the sociologist Patricia Hill Collins, the term “controlling image” refers to an image that naturalizes and normalizes sexism and posits it as an unavoidable part of everyday life. Professor Peto asserts that female employees were deployed as “controlling images” for the men working in intelligence. Peto’s article “A Gender History of Hungarian Intelligence Services During the Cold War” is based on the positions and activities of women employees from the interwar period up to the 1980s, from an analysis of Hungarian intelligence services archival sources. Who were the Cold War’s women spies? And how has the intelligence profession changed as an increasing number of women came to pursue it for their careers? Andrea Peto goes beyond the “Mata Hari” syndrome – the sexualized, exoticized image of women working in spy craft – in her latest research, published in the Journal of Intelligence History. ![]()
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