The Spy Who Wore Red: Josephine Baker
She used celebrity to support wartime resistance and challenge racism, turning the access granted by fame into a means of gathering intelligence and demanding justice.
Women worth knowing
All Stories
Extraordinary women, overlooked stories, and a more complete history. Explore the lives, ideas, and achievements that changed the world.
women spies
Mary Richards, Civil War Spy: She Never Surrendered
She gathered intelligence inside an enemy leader’s home, then worked to educate formerly enslaved people, continuing the fight for freedom despite threats to her schools.
Grace Dalrymple Elliott, Courtesan and Spy
She risked her life to help others during a revolution, leaving a memoir that preserves a woman’s perspective on political upheaval and the struggle to survive it.
Gertrude Bell, Al Khatun: Queen of the Desert
Her expertise in the region carried her from archaeology into wartime intelligence and state-building, where her political influence and museum work helped shape a country’s future.