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Image of Betty MacDonald's headquarters pass when she was stationed in Burma in 1944 with the OSS.

U.S. news

Women of the C.I.A.

A pictorial history of America’s female spies, from the OSS officers who worked behind the lines in WWII to some of today’s top CIA officials.

/ 26 PHOTOS
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The Virginia Hall exhibit at the CIA Museum inside CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. celebrates the work of America’s most famous and most decorated female spy, who ran a network of operatives behind enemy lines in France in WWII. Seventy years later, women have risen to positions of authority in the CIA, and four of the agency’s top seven officials, and two of its top three, are female.

John Makely / NBCNews.com
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Virginia Hall, a Baltimore native, joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the WWII spy agency that later gave rise to the CIA. She had lost her lower left leg in a hunting accident before the war. While she served in France, her artificial leg had its own codename, “Cuthbert,” and the Germans offered a reward for the capture of the “the woman with a limp,” calling her “the most dangerous of all Allied spies.”.

John Makely / NBCNews.com
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Virginia Hall escaped from Vichy France in 1942 but returned in 1944 prior to D-Day. After the war, Hall was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross by the head of the OSS, Maj. Gen. William “Wild Bill” Donovan.

THE BALTIMORE SUN
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In the CIA’s early days, women were often relegated to support roles. This shot was taken at the agency’s old headquarters on E Street in Washington, D.C., in 1952.

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Doris Bohrer was an operative for the OSS in the 1940s, and served in Italy.

Image: Elzabeth  McIntosh interviews a U.S. sailor in Honolulu in the 1940's

Betty McIntosh interviews a U.S. sailor in Honolulu in the 1940s. She served in the OSS in India, Burma and China.

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Betty McIntosh in China during the war.

Image of Betty MacDonald's headquarters pass when she was stationed in Burma in 1944 with the OSS.

Betty McIntosh’s identification card from 1944..

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Doris Bohrer (left) and Betty McIntosh (right) did not know each other during the war. Now 90 and 98, they met after they both moved into a Northern Virginia retirement community. They soon realized they had something in common.

John Makely / NBCNews.com
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From left to right, Fran Moore, the CIA’s Director of Intelligence, and Sue Gordon, the agency’s Director of Support, meet with Doris Bohrer, Betty McIntosh and NBC News National and International Correspondent Ann Curry at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. in October 2013.

John Makely / NBCNews.com
Image: Betty McIntosh, Charles T. Pinck

Betty McIntosh, then 93, laughs as OSS Society President Charles T. Pinck reads her recently declassified file out loud, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2008, in the Stack Area of the National Archives in College Park, Md. The National Archives opened more than 35,000 official personnel files of men and women who served in the OSS.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP
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Famed chef Julia Child also worked in the OSS. A member of the media reads her declassified file on Aug. 14, 2008, in the textual research room of the National Archives in College Park, Md.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP
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Doris Bohrer and Betty McIntosh, who were both OSS operatives during WWII, pause during a visit to CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. in front of a statue of their old boss, OSS chief Maj. Gen. William “Wild Bill” Donovan

John Makely / NBCNews.com

The CIA Museum features an outfit and a compact used by female operatives

Image: The Director of the CIA's conference room.

The CIA Director’s conference room at headquarters in Langley. Top CIA personnel ran the May 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden from this room.

Image: Image:  A world clock and a portrait of President Barack Obama on one wall of the CIA Director's conference room.

The CIA Director’s conference room features a portrait of President Obama and a “world clock.” The clock features the times from various hot spots around the globe, and can be updated with new cities as new crises arise.

John Makely / NBCNews.com
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CIA Director John Brennan in the conference room.

John Makely / NBCNews.com
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Director Brennan is interviewed by Ann Curry, his first-ever on-camera interview as director

John Makely / NBCNews.com
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Fran Moore, left, and Sue Gordon are the agency’s fourth and seventh ranking officers.

John Makely / NBCNews.com
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Ann Curry, Fran Moore and Sue Gordon in the CIA Director’s conference room.

John Makely / NBCNews.com
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Fran Moore receives a commendation from then-CIA director Leon Panetta..

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Graphic designers Ashley Hirst (left) and Gabriella Calamari help assemble media for President Obama’s daily intelligence briefing, known as the PDB.

John Makely / NBCNews.com
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Ashley Hirst and Gabriella Calamari are among the new wave of female employees at the CIA, who now comprise 46 percent of the workforce.

John Makely / NBCNews.com
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CIA personnel (L to R) Gabriella Calamari, Director of Intelligence Fran Moore, in red, and , Director for Support Sue Gordonon, Ashley Hurst pose for a group picture with Elizabeth "Betty" McIntosh, seated, left, and Doris Bohrer who were both operatives with the OSS.

John Makely / NBCNews.com
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CIA Director of Intelligence Fran Moore says goodbye to former OSS operative Doris Bohrer at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va.

John Makely / NBCNews.com
Saturday, June 29, 2013, in McClean, VA (John Makely / NBC News)

The CIA museum

The exterior of the CIA in Langley, Va. The headquarters dates from 1953, when women made up 40 percent of the agency workforce. Only one out of five of the women, however, were doing anything other than low-level or clerical jobs.

John Makely / NBCNews.com
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