Research Symposium

BIO

Sophia is in her second year studying International Affairs (History concentration) and Economics with a French minor. Among her many interests, she particularly enjoys learning about European history. During her freshman year, Sophia studied abroad a in London, where she was chosen for the honor of representing FSU at the Last Post Ceremony in Ypres, Belgium. Sophia is from Sarasota, Florida.

Ungentlemanly Warfare: The Women of the SOE

Abstract

During WWII, the British Special Operation (SOE) Executive’s F Section, in France, employed a variety of spies and employees, a number of these being female, who have often fallen through the cracks of history. We addressed the question of what life was like for these women and how their lives differed from their male counterparts. We investigated this question not only to bring these women to light, but also because understanding their work is critical to understanding WWII operations and the defeat of the Third Reich and its allies. We examined a multitude of primary documents relating to both male and female spies. Then, we conducted literary analyses of these documents to gain a first-hand understanding of the lives of these female spies. At the end of our project, we chose a few women to focus on and examine in depth. Our results found that there were significant differences in the lives of the women of the SOE and the men in terms of how they were treated and discussed. However, they were given equal responsibilities and put in situations of comparable danger. These results provide more evidence to the brushing over of the work of women in the field during wartime, as well as highlighting how influential that work actually was during WWII. The results suggest that there may be more undiscovered heroes of WWII and other historical events who were disregarded because of their gender, which implies that further historical analysis into these events is necessary.

Keywords: World War II, history, spies, women