The Sisterhood

As a woman physician/scientist coming up through the ranks of a male-dominated profession and working for the federal government in the 1970's, 80's and 90's, just as the "sisterhood" characters did, I identified deeply with many of the characters' experiences, and was surprised to learn that what they experienced in the intelligence community was very similar to what I had experienced in my own field in the federal government. Learning these stories of female spies explained a lot about the ways that my own career was directed, and it made me feel a sisterhood with the women described in the… show more.

As I researched the 1990s hunt for Osama Bin Laden for my book, I became aware that most of the team in the CIA virtual station tasked with tracking down the terrorist leader was composed of women. And yet, most histories of the CIA are histories of (white) men.

In this book, I could find a lot more detail on the women hunting Bin Laden, as well as on many others. Mundy provides a potted history of women in the CIA, from its origins to the present day. In the book, I admired Mundy’s ability to contact and fully connect… show more.

I had to skim several sections of this nonfiction book because it was tough for me to process all the brutal, unrelenting details of how real women have been mistreated and mishandled by Western intelligence services.

But I came away with a more complete sense of what it takes to work in espionage and how necessary it is to understand exactly what you’re fighting for when every day can be a neverending shitshow.

Also, the title definitely pays off, so hang in there if you can, reader.