Wise Gals by Nathalia Holt

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Wise Gals by Nathalia Holt: Episode 3

Episode 3

BBC Radio 4 - Wise Gals by Nathalia Holt, Episode 3

A new female task force in the CIA is born - colloquially named The Petticoat Panel.

In the 1950s, within the CIA, female staff began to demand equal rights with their male counterparts. And a new task force was born - colloquially named The Petticoat Panel.

In the wake of World War II, four agents were critical in helping build a new organization that we now know as the CIA. 

Adelaide Hawkins, Mary Hutchison, Eloise Page, and Elizabeth Sudmeier, called the “wise gals” by their male colleagues because of their sharp sense of humour and even quicker intelligence, were not the stereotypical femme fatale of spy novels. They were smart, courageous, and ground-breaking agents at the top of their class, instrumental in both developing innovative tools for intelligence gathering - and insisting (in their own unique ways) that they receive the credit and pay their expertise deserved.  

Through their friendship and shared sense of purpose, they rose to positions of power and were able to make real change in a traditionally “male, pale, and Yale” organisation. 

Wise Gals sheds a light on the untold history of the women whose daring foreign intrigues, domestic persistence, and fighting spirit have been and continue to be instrumental to US security.

Read by Nicola Stuart-Hill

Written by Nathalia Holt
Abridged by Polly Coles

Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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