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8/4/2019 From Librarians to Leadership

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(U)Cryptologic Almanac 50th Anniversary Series(U)From Librarians to Leadership: Women at NSA

(U) In 1955, only three percent ofthe OS-14 and above population at NSA was female; in1998 the percentage had risen to twenty-three percent. In 1955, the two highest rankingwomen at NSA were GS-15s. Today, women hold some of the most senior ranks in theAgency hierarchy. Times have changed as have the rights and responsibilities entrusted towomen. In looking back across the fifty years ofNSA's history, it is impressive how farwomen have come.(U) During World War II, women moved into low-level supervisory positions, overseeingthe work ofboth male and female employees. At the end of the war, unlike in some otherindustries, female cryptologists were not forced out of their jobs. With a significantnumber of individuals, both male and female, wanting to return to their peacetimeoccupations, almost all of the women who wanted remain in cryptology were able to.Further, within five years of the end of the war, outstanding wartime employees who hadleft, including Ann Caracristi, were recruited and hired back.(U) Just because women were allowed to remain in the business did not mean that theysignificantly influenced the shape of the postwar cryptologic world. Women wereconspicuously absent from the boards organizing what became the Armed Forces SecurityAgency (AFSA) and then NSA. With the birth ofAFSA, few women held positions ofsignificant leadership. And those who did were in personnel or librarian-type positions;jobs traditionally held by women.(U) During the 1950s women made subtle, but significant progress in expanding their rolesat the new National Security Agency. There was one woman chief in the PRODorganization, a group similar to the current SIGINT Directorate: Dr. Julia Ward. As chiefof the reference section, Ward was the first woman to exert a great deal of influence over awide variety of SIGINT targets. Others, like Dorothy Blum, began to enter technical fieldspreviously considered men's territory. Blum was an early NSA computer scientist involvedin developing computer programs and special-purpose devices to assist in cryptanalysis. Inanother instance, Juanita Moody moved into positions of increasing leadership in analyticorganizations. This groundwork laid in the 1950s would lead to visible progress in the1960s.

/ (U) As in the United States in general, the roles and rights ofwomen at NSA in the 1960s"pprO"'led for R:elease b'i ~ ' , J S . A , or6-"12-2009 FOI.A. Cm:;e # 52561


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