news.com.auUK spy claims mothers make ‘bloody good spies’2 hours ago April 01, 2014 1:26AM
MUM’S the word, or so it seems.A top British spy claims women, especially mothers, make great spies because of their ability to understand emotions and to multitask.
In an interview with The Times , the unnamed spy said being a mother meant it was also possible to draw sympathy from a range of different people who found her “less of a threat than a single female”.
“They [the terrorists] have mothers, sisters, daughters,” said the intelligence agent, who is married with young kids.
“I think they [women] are bloody good spies,” she said.
Her comments fly in the face of the glamorised image of spies put forth in movies like James Bond. The woman, who works for the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), better known as MI6, said intelligence work was more about team work than charismatic lone heroes like Bond.
She said her work had involved fighting terrorism and countering the threat of nuclear proliferation.
“I have made the world a safer place through some of the operations I have done and the agents I have run,” she said. “It is always interesting. There is massive diversity. You can be covering completely different geographical places during a career. There is a strong moral reward to it.”
She also expressed frustration at the way female spies were shown on TV, as having some kind of personality disorder, like Carrie Mathison, the female CIA operative in the Homeland television series.