Lucy Kirk shot upright in bed, all of her senses on high alert. It was early morning, she wasn’t sure what time, but the sun was low in the sky and the light filtering through her window was hazy and gray. Lucy’s heart pounded in her chest… Someone was in her bedroom!

“Where’d you get that cool purse with the camera hidden in the bottom?” the intruder asked, with a sly smile on his face.

Lucy’s rudely awakened brain scrambled to come up with a response, any response that could get her out of this situation.

“Is it for your ‘secret work’ at the Pentagon?” he asked.

And just like that, Lucy realized her cover had been blown. Everything she’d been training for was about to be exposed.

Lucy did her best to look menacing, though it’s hard to look like a proper spy when you’re wearing pajamas. “If you ever tell anyone about this…” she paused and stared him down, there was one threat Lucy could think of that would guarantee his silence, “I’ll tell mom you snooped through my stuff.”

Lucy’s 11-year-old brother Richard stared back at her from across the room, his mischievous smile dropping immediately from his face. Lucy felt her heart slow to a normal pace, and she let out a relieved breath. She could tell from her brother’s expression that her secret was safe… for now.

I’m Gina Scarpa. And this is Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls.

A fairy tale podcast about the real life rebel women who inspire us.

On this episode: Lucy Kirk, a CIA officer who found her voice and paved the way for future female spies.

Lucy grew up feeling like a pretty normal kid. She was born in 1940, in Columbus, Ohio. She had a mom, a dad, and three younger brothers who loved to get on her nerves. She went to school and got good grades. And, like a lot of kids, she got nervous when she had to speak in front of the class.

As she got older, Lucy observed big differences in the expectations society had for men and women. As a teenager in the 1950s, most of the women Lucy knew either got married and had kids right out of school, or had three main jobs to pick from: a nurse, a teacher, or a secretary.

None of that particularly appealed to Lucy and she started to ponder what a different path might look like for her. She had always enjoyed learning about other countries and cultures. When her family took trips to Europe, she spent hours exploring narrow cobblestone streets, and trying food she’d never had before. She majored in American Studies at Wellesley College, but spent her time dreaming of being anywhere other than America.

Soon after graduating, Lucy got her chance to move abroad. She spent time at a program in Argentina, and fell in love with the Argentinian people and culture. This program confirmed for Lucy that whatever she did with her life, she wanted to keep learning about the rest of the world.

So, she returned to Washington D.C. for grad school, and after graduation she started to look for any kind of work that had the word “international” in the job description.

The problem was, even in the 1960s, the jobs that involved international travel and would consider hiring a woman were few and far between. Some of Lucy’s friends suggested that if she really wanted adventure, she could apply to work for the Central Intelligence Agency, also known as the CIA. The CIA is a U.S. government agency that collects information from foreign countries and shares it with American leaders to help them make decisions.

The organization was only twenty-years old at the time, and Lucy wasn’t sure what a job there would look like. But she figured… if it meant an adventure, why not try?

Lucy found that there was a CIA office not far from her home in Washington D.C.. At her first appointment, they told her the job would involve a lot of training and travel, and it wasn’t going to be easy. Training and travel? Lucy thought? She was in!

After months of interviews and background checks, Lucy soon found herself packing her bags to spend a year at the training facility, also known as “The Farm.” She was going to become a CIA agent!

Lucy was given a fake name to use to protect her real identity. She would live at the training site during the week and only go home for weekends. And she wasn’t allowed to tell anyone that she was joining the CIA, not even her family!

At The Farm, Lucy was one of only nine women training alongside nearly one hundred men. After going to all girls schools most of her life, it was strange to be so outnumbered!

Still, Lucy didn’t have much time to think about it. The CIA training program was demanding! Lucy had to learn everything she could about world history and current events, as well as certain special skills. Skills like how to follow someone without being seen, how to read and write in codes, and how to use cutting edge equipment to observe people in secret. They gave her special tools, like the purse her brother found that had a tiny hidden camera in it.

Just like in school, Lucy studied hard and passed her training tests with good scores. And yet, Lucy noticed there were some men in their group who never seemed to study at all, and were still somehow making the same grades.

It felt odd to her, but there was little she could do. If the men only had to be half as good to succeed, then Lucy would just have to work two times harder.

Lucy’s hard work paid off, and she was soon given her first assignment as an agent of the CIA. It was a job in Washington D.C., working in the China division. The role proved fascinating, but she wasn’t living in another country, immersed in another culture, the way she’d wanted to be.

For her next assignment, Lucy applied to work in Europe. The manager she interviewed with seemed to really like her, but after the interview he told her “Sorry, we can’t hire you. We already have a woman we like.”

Lucy was shocked. The job was available, and she was qualified for it. She’d proven herself in training and done well on her first assignment. She’d even learned to speak French and Spanish. Why did it matter that she was a woman? Couldn’t the entire European branch of the CIA hire more than one woman as a field agent?

What no one would admit to Lucy, was that within the CIA, just like in most of the world at that time, some jobs were seen as “Men’s Jobs,” and others were seen as “Women’s Jobs.” Men did the international traveling and the spying, and women sat at a desk in the office and wrote reports on the information the men had learned.

Lucy knew she could have done that job, and done it well. She was determined to challenge the ridiculous idea that one woman in an entire department was “enough.”

Despite being shy as a kid, Lucy became an expert people person. She started observing people’s interactions, learning what questions to ask to get people talking. Lucy worked hard in every position she earned, and fought for jobs that would get her away from a desk and out into the field, climbing the ranks, from agent, to manager and beyond.

She went into companies and won their trust so they would tell her their secrets, about oil wells in the Middle East, archeological discoveries, or foreign scientific advancements. Sometimes, the information Lucy collected would make it all the way back to the White House.

One of Lucy’s contacts was a writer from South America. When she needed to collect information, she would call him from phones that couldn’t be tracked, and ask him to write down everything he knew. Then, the two would meet on street corners. Lucy would stroll up to the corner in her business suit and heels, her eyes scanning for anything suspicious. Her contact would approach and slide her a packet of intel, and she’d pass him back an envelope of money. Then, she would take the information back to her office and report back everything she’d learned. Mission accomplished.

Next up, Lucy needed a contact that could give her insight into the Russian government. She used her resources to find a European man who did business there frequently. Now an expert at foreign affairs herself, Lucy started a conversation with the man about recent events and politics. Over fancy midday meals, Lucy would steer their conversation to Russian affairs, and the man would happily tell her all about his experiences there and the high ranking people he knew. She knew people love to be asked about themselves, after all. After lunch, Lucy would hurry back to her office and write down everything she could remember and report back to the CIA.

She could have been discouraged on countless occasions when a man was hired into a position that she knew she would have been perfect for. But she chose to keep working and finding her voice, proving herself time and time again.

Lucy’s life turned out to be anything but normal. Over her 30 years in the CIA, she became an expert in international politics and got people to tell her crucial information. Along the way, Lucy blossomed from a shy young girl to a competent and strategic operator, even becoming Chief of Station. She didn’t get to travel internationally as much as she’d wanted to, but she did well in a career she was proud of, and went on to write a novel and a memoir about her experiences.

Lucy helped pave the way for more women to join the CIA and work on assignments around the world, in the field and in the action. By the time Lucy retired in the late 1990s, the CIA trainee group at The Farm had just as many women as men, and women held some of the very top positions of the entire CIA.

Perhaps that was Lucy’s true mission all along. To learn new things about the world and the people in it, strive for excellence, and prove that women are so much more than society assumes. Because any challenging and important role, can always use another woman.

This podcast is a production of Rebel Girls. It’s based on the book series Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls.

This episode was narrated by me, Gina Scarpa. It was produced and directed by Haley Dapkus, with sound design and mixing by Mumble Media.

The story was written by Emily McMahon-Wattez. Fact checking by Eliza Kirby. Our intern was Arianna Griffiths. The executive producers were Joy Smith and Jes Wolfe.

Original theme music was composed and performed by Elettra Bargiacchi.

A special thanks to Lucy Kirk and the whole Rebel Girls team, who made this podcast possible! Until next time, staaaay rebel!