The FT has a fascinating look into life as a high-ranking female spy now that for the first time ever 3 out of the 4 of the Director Generals of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, aka MI6, are women.

Such high ranking positions have traditionally been the preserve of men, with women mostly being recruited as secretaries or for the purpose of honeytraps. Or “I like my girls to have good legs” as Vernon Kell, the founder of the former British Security Service apparently said.

But of course the very fact that people still don’t readily imagine a spy as being female opens up potential avenues of exploitation that might be less available to the more traditional James Bond demographic.