Code Girls

Résumé du livre

Liza Mundy is an award-willing journalist and author of the New York Times bestselling The Richer Sex: How the New Majority of Female Breadwinners Is Transforming Sex, Love and Family. She has contributed to publications such as TIME, the Guardian, the New Republic, and Slate and was previously a reporter at the Washington Post. As a senior fellow at the think tank New America, she is a leading expert on women and work issues.

In the summer of 1916, Elizebeth Smith arrived at Riverbank Laboratories, where her skepticism about uncovering a cipher allegedly proving Sir Francis Bacon authored Shakespeare’s works marked the beginning of her journey in cryptography. During World War I, Riverbank became a code-breaking hub under her and her husband William Friedman’s leadership, setting the stage for Elizebeth’s later fame in decoding Prohibition-era criminal communications. Meanwhile, Agnes Meyer Driscoll, a former math teacher, played a pivotal role in breaking Japanese naval codes, though the Japanese adapted their systems before a major attack. As World War II progressed, women like Fran Steen and the code girls at Arlington Hall endured the psychological toll of war while contributing to critical breakthroughs, including deciphering Japanese communications that signaled the war’s end. The attack on Pearl Harbor underscored the urgent need for cryptanalysts, prompting the navy and army to recruit women with diverse academic backgrounds. These women, often referred to as “g-girls,” worked grueling shifts in Washington, DC, while enjoying newfound independence and camaraderie. Their efforts extended beyond the Pacific, as WAVES members helped construct bombe machines to decode German Enigma messages, contributing to the success of D-Day through deception strategies like Operation Bodyguard. Women like Genevieve Grotjan also made groundbreaking discoveries, such as cracking the Japanese Purple cipher, enabling the Allies to intercept critical communications. Despite facing discrimination, these women proved indispensable, their work shaping the course of the war and cementing their legacy in cryptographic history.

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