Embedded within military intelligence and communications, wartime cryptography was a man's world filled with engineers, mathematicians, statisticians, military tacticians, political scientists, and linguists. But women did much more during World War II than resupply coffee and shuffle papers. Even beyond nursing and manufacturing, women working top-secret desk jobs played an integral role in supporting the Allied effort. They helped shorten the length of the war, saving countless lives in the process.
Bringing to light the quiet heroism of female code breakers of WWII is an opportunity to showcase the exceptional women who saved lives and changed the tide of the greatest war in human history.
The life of a female codebreaker was not a simple one. Even as they applied themselves to complicated counterintelligence work and labored daily alongside their male colleagues, they fought an uphill battle on many different fronts inside and outside the office.
Despite the constant need to "prove" themselves and justify their life choices to men and women alike, these brilliant women never thought of themselves as heroes, but rather as citizens performing their duty, in common with the pragmatic attitudes that many people held during the war.
As such, their stories and accomplishments have remained firmly under the radar-often missing from official documentation, history books, public lore, and therefore general public awareness.
The British feat of breaking the German Enigma code at Bletchley Park has been celebrated in popular culture in various books and movies, but the stories of many women who worked to break codes in the complex world of cryptography remain relatively untold.
Many of the men who served in the war have been made heroes through the documentation of and telling and retelling of their daring exploits. Not so the unsung women heroes of WWII.
Inside Women Code Breakers: The Best Kept Secret of WWII you'll learn the true stories of female code breakers whose top-secret work helped win World War II, including:
● the stories of Elizebeth Friedman, Joan Clarke, Coral Hinds, and many other great minds working for the Allied forces
from the United States, Great Britain, and Australia-all of whom were trailblazers in the field of cryptography
● a simple rundown on cryptography as a science, the history of its use, and what it took to break wartime codes
● the legacies of these exceptional women, and the impacts their work had both on the war effort and in the years after
● the social constraints and sexist attitudes that women faced, even as they worked on highly classified projects
By knowing the names and faces of the heroic women codebreakers of WWII, we are finally allowing their lives and accomplishments to shine. If you are looking for a unique perspective of wartime history then Women Code Breakers: The Best Kept Secret of WWII is a great place to start!
Elise Baker has a lifelong interest in women's history and feminism. Her passion is excavating the past to unearth the stories of women whose remarkable feats and accomplishments have been buried and forgotten because of their gender in the hope that they can fuel and inspire women of today to face adversity and discrimination with courage. In learning about the achievements of these remarkable women, we address the serious shortage of women in documented history. There are countless women leaders whose contributions have been forgotten. Often they put their lives on the line, knowing that their efforts would likely go unrecognized. Their stories offer a more balanced perspective on history. May they serve as inspiration to women to continue to make a difference and occupy important spaces. Elise's maternal family, from the borderlands of the Czech Republic, became refugees with no country to belong to after the Second World War and dispersed all over the world. She grew up listening to her grandmother's recollections of this time, and believes that understanding and learning from the bravery of ordinary women is essential in shaping the future. She holds an Honors degree and a Postgraduate Diploma that led to a career as a librarian, archivist, and eventually an editor for television. She loves traveling to different countries and experiencing diverse cultures. When she's not reading or writing, she enjoys walking with her dog along the beach and seeing plays at the theater with family and friends.To see more books in the Brave Women in History and the Brave Women Who Changed the Course of WWII series, please visit www.ReadEliseBaker.com
