The intriguing world of spooks in popular imagination has been a bastion of macho musculature and swagger, mirroring the societal tilt towards unabashed patriarchy.
Ian Fleming’s fictional creation James Bond 007 , an iconic spy in the now storied spy-verse has become synonymous with the contours of a super spy. Add ingredients like luxury sports cars , fancy planes and aerobatic helicopters that defy gravity, a battery of guns, trick -gadgets and double agents to outwit the adversary. What you have is a heady cocktail that’s potent whichever way you imbibe it, whether shaken or stirred--- a phrase eternally tagged on to Bond’s preferred beverage: the Vesper Martini.
A little nugget I found online---perhaps it is not so widely known that the name James Bond uttered with such flourish by the protagonist , was actually named after a very dedicated American ornithologist far from the world of the fictional flamboyant spy.
Fleming chose this name from his bookshelf because it seemed to him “ brief, unromantic, and yet very masculine”. He sent a copy of his book, ‘You Live Only Twice’ inscribed to the “real” James Bond whose name he had purloined.
As in many other areas in real life, women have been given a secondary status in this shadowy fictional world of espionage too. They make an appearance in this ecosphere as the femme fatale baits to lure the target, the much used honey trap. But the truth is that women over the ages from all over the globe have played a stellar role in espionage without looking for star billing.
To give Ian Fleming his due, he observed the societal wind sock blowing towards gender assertion. Hence, he cast Dame Judy Dench as the MI6 Chief with the code M, in the movie, ‘The Golden Eye’ in the year 1995 and through to her final appearance in ‘Skyfall’. That indeed was prescient.
Stop Press! Now we have Code M for Metreweli decades later. At last, there is freedom from Bond-age and a real ‘M’ has taken over the MI6. The actual code used for MI6 chiefs has been traditionally ‘C’ written in green ink. This persists even today. It is named after the first head of MI6, Sir Mansfield Cummings who used green ink for the code.
Blaise Metreweli has created a buzz with her recent appointment ,effective from October 2025. As the first woman head of the legendary MI6, Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, this is an astounding first in 116 years. Like the slow demise of all male board -rooms , men-only locker-rooms, all-male clubs etc this appointment too has shattered gender exclusivity.
No intention to upstage Fleming but our Hindu epics mention a spy network. And Chanakya has detailed information on types of spies to run the Rajamandala (international relations) in his book ‘Arthashastra’ around 2nd century BCE. Espionage has been used over millennia as a covert and overt tool for power and state security . And women have risked their lives for intelligence gathering but remained unsung. Now with declassification of files and research, the record is being set right.
The International Spy Museum in Washington D,C. (the largest in the world), has a record of the ‘sisterhood of spies’ in recent European history. This gallery of women spies has some legendary names like Mata Hari(WWI) and Noor Inayat Khan of Indian origin (WWII)whose daring missions and the gruesome end after being caught have been recorded.
The world of spies today has gone way beyond cloak and dagger business. Since technology is the driving force now in most spheres , mere physical prowess and theatrics is not what makes a super spy tick. Cyber intelligence, code making and breaking, information and disinformation and AI in a post-truth digital world amidst geo-political crises are the name of the game now.
Blaise Metreweli , currently head of technology and innovation, excels in this domain. She has decades of experience in MI6 with a reputation of being cool and credible. She doesn’t need a licence to kill with the Bond swagger but has a different ‘swag’ of her own that’ll rewrite the script for super spies and women in spycraft.
Cheers to that!
Ushi Kak aka Kashpundit, mostly writes satire. Views expressed here are the writer’s own.