Not even in their obituaries are the women recognised for their contributions in the Second World War.
The eight otherwise ordinary women profiled in the new podcast Invisible Women took up dangerous spy work during the Second World War and when it was over, mostly went back to their lives and didn’t tell a soul for decades.
Now, Bowen Island psychotherapist Diane Greig is sharing their stories with the world as she uncovers the cultural norms that kept the women quiet.
'Captured' by an image
The project started 15 years ago. Greig was working on her PhD, studying labyrinth meditation and dreamwork. The U.K., U.S. and Canada had started opening their files from the Second World War a few years earlier and a friend came across a woman who’d worked for the Polish military behind the lines in France.
The friend shared some of the woman’s story and Greig was captured. “They had parachuted in by the light of the moon,” she said. “I was captured by that image, by the fact that these stories had never been told.”
A PhD topic and advisor switch later, Greig forged into a world of secrets.
From declassified files, contacts, and a lot of research, Greig found eight women who had worked for the military (French, British, American and Polish) and four who had worked in resistances (Dutch, Polish, Belgian and French).
Eight were able to participate in her PhD research under the condition of anonymity. “Even when the Official Secrets Act was up, they still didn’t talk,” said Greig. All of the women Greig talked to had just started telling their stories in the previous five years. With the exception of one, none had had their entire stories captured.
“As a psychotherapist, I’m always interested in what’s in shadow – what’s hidden?” Greig said. “To help clients, you often have to investigate, you have to find out something about them that they don’t know about themselves in order to help them.”
So when Greig heard about these women’s stories, she wondered why they were still hidden.
Beyond the femme fatale
The image of the femme fatale, of women selling sex for secrets, persists in pop culture and Greig thinks that cultural stigma is part of what stopped these women from telling their stories for so long. But when the women were in their 80s and Greig came along, opening up was a now or never decision.
“For the most part, these women were wanting to tell their stories,” said Greig. “They found they loved doing the spy work. Even though they said how horrific and terrible war was, they found the work thrilling and that they knew they could do the work.”
Some conversations were very difficult – these women had seen and experienced horrors – those aren’t in the podcast (though the women said they could be shared).
“My research, isn’t about the horrors of war, we all know what that is. It’s really about…the rigidness of cultural norms,” said Greig. During wartime, when they were useful, the women were called to step up – to work in factories, to work as spies – the culture of the time wanted to use them. “Post-war, of course, those opportunities for adventure and independence closed up.”
All but one of the women Greig interviewed returned to her life of before.
“When I Google their names, to find their obituaries, none of the obituaries say that they worked in World War Two - they say that they’re the wife or the mother of so and so,” said Greig. “There’s this perpetuation of not having value and not having their contribution known.” In the podcast, they’re still known only by pseudonym.
In the opening episode of Invisible Women, Greig describes having to be vetted by the men in each woman’s life before being allowed access to the former spy.
“Some of them had regrets,” said Greig. “Like Edie [who was in the Belgian resistance, transcribing and passing messages about supplies and troop movements, as a young woman], she had regrets that she’d never finished her education. She never worked again.”
And we’re still seeing these patterns said Greig. “Women are still not paid equally to men. We’re still in the subordinate position,” she said. “Maybe it’s not as extreme as it was back then in a more authoritarian era, but we still see the same pattern.”
Greig talked to the Undercurrent the week after Kamala Harris became vice-president elect of the U.S. “Maybe there’s barriers just being broken now really,” commented Greig. “We’ve got to keep the story going,”
A cultural moment
Why do the podcast now, 15 years after meeting these women? On the one hand there’s time– with the pandemic and being semi-retired, Greig has time to work on the podcast. There are also many, many talented actors lacking work due to the pandemic – Greig hired eight to voice the women who have by now mostly died. (Actors include Bowen's own Lucia Frangione.) But there’s also a cultural moment.
“There seems to be a stretching of societal norms collectively, when we look at the progressive movement today – with climate change, Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ+, women’s marches – there seems to be a desire to look at ourselves differently, to reassess who we are and how we’re acting in life,” said Greig.
“There’s an opening in culture, just like there was for these women in World War Two,” said Greig. “There was an opening during wartime because of the chaos and women being invited into roles that were usually reserved for men.”
(It's also notable here that books, movies and articles about women in espionage in the Second World War have gained prominence in the past decade.)
Seeking role models
“What’s held and what’s held in shadows or secrecy in a culture is really important, especially for women,” said Greig. “You need to see role models…you need to see it in order to be it.”
“And so if women have stories that they think they should share, I would encourage them to do it,” said Greig, adding that this goes for all marginalized groups. It’s about stretching the norm.
“We need, to meet the dire challenges of today, really creative thinkers. We don’t need the old status quo.”
One can find the podcast on all the usual podcast services or at the podcast website. Episode two, "Spy craft," came out Dec. 11.
There is also an Invisible Women blog and a newsletter where Greig delves deeper into the research and history behind these women’s stories, women in espionage and what’s held in shadow.
