In 1979, Heidi August began her first case officer assignment in Geneva, working under the cover of assistant to the US political counselor in the American UN delegation. Her former mentor David Whipple served as station chief. Inspired by journalist Oriana Fallaci’s aggressive interview techniques, Heidi proposed specializing in recruiting women as assets, having noticed the numerous female clerks at diplomatic meetings. Whipple thought the idea impractical but permitted her to try.

A cable from Paris identified a woman with access to cryptographic technology for her nation, an African country that Geneva Station was interested in. As the woman played squash, Heidi joined the squash club, engineered a locker-room meeting, and befriended the target, who was deeply resentful of sexist treatment at work. Over nearly a year, Heidi built trust, eventually revealing her CIA affiliation and successfully recruiting the woman.

The operation’s goal was for the asset to steal her country’s encryption key so CIA technicians could copy it. Heidi had two tennis bags modified, one with a secret compartment, and planned meticulously with dry runs and cover stories. Whipple agreed to stake his career on the operation’s success. It proceeded precisely: The asset brought the device out in her tennis bag, Heidi delivered it to technicians at a hotel, they copied it in 10 minutes, and the asset returned it undetected. Heidi signaled success by dropping bacon on Whipple’s breakfast table. The operation continued for over a year. For her achievement, Heidi received a commendation and promotions, and in 1982, Director William Casey ordered her to become a station chief aged 35.

By 1982, when Heidi August became station chief, only a handful of women had held such positions. The first was Eloise Page, sent to Athens in 1978. Male colleagues expected her to fail in Greece’s patriarchal culture, but the Greeks embraced the diminutive, mannered Page, calling her “Auntie.” Her male subordinates, however, ran an operation against her, providing negative feedback to a headquarters emissary. Page exposed them and forced two officers out but her failure to highlight the 1981 socialist election victory was deemed an intelligence failure. After her tour, she was sidelined. Sue McCloud, another early female station chief, earned both respect and resentment. Her demanding management style earned her unflattering nicknames, but she championed younger women when opportunities arose.

Heidi’s new station in Malta consisted of just her and a secretary, monitoring Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi. In 1985, she organized a hijacking training exercise in Malta called Incident Management, using it to recruit Maltese police assets.

On November 23, 1985, Heidi learned EgyptAir Flight 648 had been hijacked and was being held in Malta. She rushed to the airport and was assigned a command post alongside PLO and Libyan representatives. The hijackers began executing passengers every 15 minutes. Heidi witnessed the third American victim, Scarlett Rogenkamp, being executed at the door of the plane. An Egyptian commando team arrived with US Delta Force advisers, but the rescuers had never practiced an airplane assault. The botched operation killed 58 passengers with explosives, including all seven children aboard. One surviving hijacker was captured, and Heidi traced the operation to the Abu Nidal Organization. After seeing Rogenkamp’s body in the morgue, Heidi vowed to dedicate her career to counterterrorism.

During the 1980s and 1990s, women at CIA headquarters mounted organized efforts to combat systemic discrimination. Early change came from administrative staff. In 1977, after being repeatedly denied promotion despite excellent evaluations, staff operations officer Harritte “Tee” Thompson filed an EEO complaint, escalating it into the first sex discrimination lawsuit against the CIA in 1979. The agency settled, granting Thompson back pay and retroactive promotion and forcing the Directorate of Operations to revise its promotion criteria.

Barbara Colby, wife of former Director William Colby, spearheaded legislation to secure pension benefits for the divorced spouses of government employees. Using her Capitol Hill connections, she successfully lobbied for a 1980 law sponsored by Congresswoman Pat Schroeder. Barbara Colby then enlisted Martha Peterson to inform CIA ex-wives about their new benefits. Peterson, whose husband John had died in Laos in 1972, had joined the clandestine service and become the first female case officer in Moscow, in 1975. Adopting a carefree “Party Marti” persona, she had successfully handled Soviet asset Aleksandr Ogorodnik, codenamed TRIGON, for nearly two years. When TRIGON was betrayed by a mole in 1977 and he committed suicide, the KGB had arrested, interrogated, and expelled Peterson. Now working in family assistance, Peterson and Colby organized a conference for ex-wives in the secure Bubble auditorium, despite the opposition of CIA leadership.

In summer 1985, the CIA discovered Soviet assets were being arrested and executed. A counterintelligence team led by Jeanne Vertefeuille with Sandy Grimes and Diana Worthen, began investigating. Working for Paul Redmond, they conducted the first computer-assisted counterintelligence investigation in CIA history. Vertefeuille exemplified her generation of female officers: Despite excellent language skills, she had been forced to learn typing to be hired in 1954 and was denied full Farm training. She became an expert on Soviet intelligence. Grimes faced similar discrimination, being asked in 1970 when she planned to get pregnant. 

The women, joined by Sue Eckstein and Myrna Fitzgerald, established a basement vault workspace. Their investigation focused on Aldrich “Rick” Ames, a mediocre case officer and legacy hire whose problematic behavior had long been tolerated. Janine Brookner had previously reported his reckless conduct, but her warning was ignored. Diana Worthen noticed Ames’s lavish lifestyle, including a new Jaguar and expensive home renovations. Sandy Grimes compiled a 500-page chronology of Ames’s activities and discovered correlations between his meetings with Soviet contacts and large bank deposits.

Ames condescendingly crossed paths with the investigators, underestimating them because they were women. Ames was arrested on February 21, 1994. Vertefeuille and Grimes received lesser awards than their male supervisor and boycotted the ceremony.

The Ames controversy erupted during a national reckoning on sexual harassment sparked by Anita Hill’s 1991 testimony. A CIA Glass Ceiling Study documented discrimination but led to limited change. Meanwhile, Heidi August and Mary Margaret Graham proactively mentored junior women. Two major lawsuits followed. Janine Brookner’s career thrived under supportive chiefs but suffered after she took the Jamaica station chief position in 1988, ostracized by her male colleagues. In 1992, her promised Prague promotion was withdrawn after subordinates accused her of sexual harassment and the Inspector General labeled her a “sexual provocateur.” Brookner filed suit in July 1994; the CIA settled in November 1994, but with her cover blown, she resigned and became a lawyer.

Simultaneously, approximately 200 female officers filed a class action suit led by an officer using the alias Marjorie Conway. The suit settled in 1995, providing back pay and retroactive promotions. The plaintiffs suffered retaliation, their names flagged and careers stalled, but the suit ensured better training access and more promotions for deserving women in the future.

Lisa Harper was promoted to station chief in a difficult Central American country. Now divorced, she found her male predecessor had set traps to undermine her. She passed leadership tests and developed valuable local access by baking muffins for the country’s ex-president. Following the settlement, Lisa became chief of the Latin America Division—the first female “baron.” Her boss Ted Price supported the appointment, but fellow male barons ostracized her. Feeling isolated and ill from a prior head injury, Lisa stepped down and retired. Mary Margaret Graham became the second “baroness” three years later.