When a Female Spy Breaks the Glass Ceiling, Does Anyone Hear It Shatter?

Don't be surprised if you haven't heard of Elizabeth Sudmeier, a spy craft pioneer who crashed through the glass ceiling of the American Central Intelligence Agency.

Her CIA case files remained classified until just ten years ago, which means we also did not know about the odds she faced, the battles she fought and the determination it took for a woman to succeed in one of the manliest professions in the world.

Like many women in the 1940s and 50s, Elizabeth began her career as a typist, but she went on to become the first woman American CIA secret agent.

During the Cold War, on assignment in the Middle East, Elizabeth procured volumes of details about Soviet Military hardware that turned out to be invaluable to US defense.

Women CIA agents were offered little respect in the 1950s, as I told you in this story First Active Duty CIA Officer to Die was a Woman. And They Lied About It. Still, Elizabeth Sudmeier performed her assignments with dedication and excellence becoming the first CIA woman to recruit and handle foreign assets.
​
One side note, an unnamed woman of the Sioux Nation no doubt contributed to Elisabeth's success, as her nanny, she practically raised the girl throughout her early years.

Elizabeth Sudmeier prior to her service in the CIA.

​Picture an American woman melting into the scene outside a cafe in Baghdad, waiting for a clandestine meeting. She's spent the last six months persuading a particular man to work with her. The stakes are high for America and for the both of them. If they're caught, they will likely pay with their lives.
 
The year is 1954 and the US and USSR maintain a tense standoff with arsenals of nuclear and conventional weapons. When the man shows up, it's only for a moment, long enough to hand this female spy an envelope. She has just stolen Soviet secrets.
 
Elizabeth holds blueprints for the Soviet MiG-19 jet fighter.

Over time, through this source, Elizabeth also gained details of the MiG-21 fighter, the SA2 missile, and dozens of volumes of technical manuals relating to Soviet military systems and equipment. This type of information proved extremely valuable to the US in understanding the capabilities of Soviet weapons. 

Elizabeth set up seemingly accidental encounters with her source at coffee houses, cafes or a movie theater. As they met briefly, he handed off materials that she carried to a secure location for copying. Then Elizabeth returned the documents to the informant later that night.

When Elizabeth went to work in the Middle East, CIA officials didn't plan on female agents courting relationships with foreign assets and managing them. Named a "Reports Officer," she was expected to stay in her lane and do tamer work.
 
According to one CIA review in 1960 “there is a general feeling that the preparation of reports is a tedious and incidental chore, to be avoided like the plague by any promising and ambitious young man who wants to get ahead in operations.”

But she proved herself, and thus other women, could successfully run operations under the intense pressure in the world of counterintelligence. She also did so under the aggressive scrutiny of her male bosses.
​
After her work in Baghdad securing important Soviet secrets, Elizabeth's station chief nominated her for the Intelligence Medal of Merit, which prompted controversy over whether a female who was not listed as an operations officer could win distinction for an operational act. Colleagues argued on her behalf and eventually in 1962, Elizabeth received the medal.

Elizabeth Sudmeier receiving her second medal of honor from the CIA.

A CIA officer who knew Elizabeth in the 1950s recalled how she paved the way for women in the CIA: “She was a real pistol…. The fact that she accomplished so much is incredible given the general antagonism of NE officers to women functioning as ops officers."

Despite of her accomplishments, superiors in the CIA did not promote Elizabeth, passing over her for eight years. An officer who knew her said, "I can tell you outright that hers was a monumental struggle as NE Division was dead set against the idea and concept of a female ops officer.” This was after she had accomplished the job!

Elizabeth was born in 1912, in the small railroad town of Timber Lake, South Dakota, near the Sioux Nation. She was raised by a Sioux nanny for much of her childhood and became fluent in the Sioux language, which her father also spoke.

​​​​​​​Elizabeth in the arms of her Sioux nanny, 1912.

After high school, Elizabeth studied English Literature at The College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota, earning a B.A. in 1933.

She returned to South Dakota and taught high school English a few years, then got a secretarial job at St. Paul, MN bank. During World War II she joined the US Army Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, where she was assigned to recruiting. 

Elizabeth Sudmeier in a Women’s Army Corps recruiting advertisement, 1944.

In March 1947, Elizabeth joined the CIA’s predecessor, the Central Intelligence Group (CIG), as a shorthand stenographer in the Office of Reports and Estimates. When the CIA replaced the CIG four months later, Elizabeth became one of the Agency’s charter members 
 
In October 1951 she transferred to the clandestine service, serving in the Middle East and South Asia for almost nine years. Elizabeth took mandatory retirement on May 12, 1972, at age sixty, dying 1989 at 76. Not even her family knew her covert duties and files relating to her work remained classified until February 2014.
 
However, in 2013, nearly 25 years after he death, Elizabeth received the CIA Trailblazer Award given to “CIA officers whose leadership, achievements, and dedication to mission had a significant impact on the agency’s history and legacy.”

Sources
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-women-who-helped-to-build-the-cia-11663992062
https://x.com/CIA/status/1113554329833758720
https://www.stkate.edu/newswire/news/elizabeth-sudmeier-cia-trailblazer
https://www.elespanol.com/social/20190408/verdadera-viuda-negra-cia-rescata-fundadora-olvidada/388711686_0.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20150905093741/https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2015-featured-story-archive/elizabeth-sudmeier-story.html