Welcome to a whirlwind tour of 10 intriguing female operatives whose daring deeds reshaped wars and intrigue. From covert couriers in the Civil War to daring radio operators in occupied France, each woman on this list proved that espionage isn’t a man’s game. Below you’ll meet spies you’ve probably never heard of, yet whose actions changed the course of history.
10 Elizabeth Van Lew
Elizabeth Van Lew, the earliest spy on this roster, fought for the Union side during the American Civil War. Residing in Richmond, Virginia, she was a widowed mother who passionately opposed slavery. Not only did she free her own slaves, she also used a $10,000 inheritance to purchase and liberate their relatives. Over nearly four years she fed intelligence to Union commanders and aided prisoners of war, earning the moniker “the most successful Federal spy of the war.” Her first “treacherous” move was volunteering as a nurse at the notorious Libby Prison, a decision that earned her scorn and hatred from fellow Southerners.
She turned the enslaved staff in her household into couriers, slipping messages to Union forces inside hollowed shoes and eggs. When prison guards barred her from speaking with inmates, she switched to using books and a personally crafted cipher. To throw off suspicion she pretended to suffer a mental disorder, talking to herself and dressing in tatters, earning neighbors the nickname “Crazy Bet.” Her spy network swelled until the war’s end, delivering some of the best Union intelligence gathered anywhere. After the conflict, Richmond ostracized her, and she lived out her days there in isolation.
9 Cecily Lefort
Born in Ireland just after the turn of the century, Cecily Lefort grew up in France and became a skilled yachtswoman. When Germany invaded in 1940, she fled to England and enlisted in the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Under the codename “Alice,” she was parachuted back into occupied France alongside fellow agents Diana Rowden and Noor Inayat Khan.
Assigned to the Jockey Network operating in the Rhône Valley, Lefort’s French tenure lasted a mere three months before a warning‑ignored house visit led to her capture. British historian M.R.D. Foot once noted her greatest contribution was suggesting the British beach near her house be used by the SOE. After brutal interrogation, she was shipped to Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she met her fate on May 1 1945, sharing the same tragic end as many captured female spies.
8 Stephanie von Hohenlohe
Thought to be of Jewish birth, Stephanie von Hohenlohe dazzled Europe with both beauty and intellect. In the early 20th century she romanced two princes—Franz Salvator of Tuscany and Friedrich Franz von Hohenlohe‑Waldenburg‑Schillingsfürst of Austria. After a scandalous pregnancy, she convinced von Hohenlohe the child was his, married him, and proudly wore the title “Princess.”
A socialite who mingled with Germany’s elite, she befriended high‑ranking officials, even Adolf Hitler, despite her half‑Jewish heritage. A World‑I nurse turned 1930s German spy, she ferried secret messages between Nazi sympathizers while in England. When war erupted, she fled to the United States, where after Pearl Harbor she was detained. In custody she supplied the OSS with a detailed report on Hitler’s personality, shaping America’s first comprehensive analysis of the Führer. Paroled in 1945, she returned to Germany, living out her later years as the infamous “Nazi Princess.”
7 Sarah Aaronsohn
Born in what is now Israel—then an Ottoman province—Sarah Aaronsohn spent most of her life there, with a brief stint in Istanbul. During a return trip she witnessed a horrific atrocity: Turkish soldiers binding up to 5,000 Armenians to a thorny pyramid and setting it ablaze. This trauma spurred her brother Aaron to recruit her into Nili, a Jewish espionage ring feeding intelligence to the British. Nili’s name derives from the biblical phrase “Netzach Yisrael Lo Yeshaker,” meaning “The Eternity of Israel Will Not Deceive.”
For nearly two years, Aaronsohn and her comrades supplied the British with critical information against Turkey. Captured on October 1 1917, she endured brutal torture yet never revealed a secret. Fearing eventual breakage that could endanger her network, she used a smuggled pistol to end her own life, succumbing four days later. Her suicide note famously read, “As heroes we died and did not confess.”
6 Velvalee Dickinson
Known as “The Doll Lady” because she ran a doll shop in New York City, Velvalee Dickinson leveraged her rarity‑collector status to funnel Allied ship movements to Japanese handlers. Frequently spotted at Japanese consulates, she dispatched letters to Señora Inez Lopez de Malinali in Buenos Aires, Argentina, embedding naval intel in seemingly innocuous correspondence. Her handler’s sloppy code made the FBI’s job easy; intercepted letters revealed discussions about U.S. naval operations.
When the FBI arrested her, they uncovered nearly $13,000 in hundred‑dollar bills traced to Japanese officials. Under pressure, Dickinson confessed, detailing the entire scheme for which she had been paid $25,000. Her ability to extract ship schedules from casual chats with locals proved deadly effective. After her handlers were exposed, she served seven years behind bars and vanished from public view upon release.
5 Denise Bloch
Born to Parisian Jewish parents, Denise Bloch grew up determined to thwart the Nazis. Her father and two older brothers fought for the French army; her brother Jean‑Claude joined the resistance, a path Denise followed for two years. Escaping Paris just before the Vel d’Hiv Roundup, the Bloch family fled to Lyon, where Denise entered the British Special Operations Executive (SOE).
The SOE orchestrated espionage across occupied Europe. Under the codename “Ambroise,” Bloch teamed with radio operator Brian Stonehouse, whose French was notoriously poor. After Stonehouse’s arrest, Bloch went into hiding, later traveling to London for radio training. She spent a year spying throughout France until the Nazis captured her in June 1944. Tortured and imprisoned, she was shipped to Ravensbrück women’s camp in early 1945, where she was executed alongside fellow agents Lilian Rolfe and Violette Szabo.
4 Noor Inayat Khan
Noor Inayat Khan entered the world in the Soviet Union in the early 20th century, born to an Indian family that soon moved to England and later France. In France she authored children’s books, but when the Nazis invaded, she fled back to England and joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF). The SOE recruited her as a radio operator, assigning the codename “Madeleine.” She became the first female radio operator sent into occupied France.
Although most of her initial network was arrested shortly after her 1943 arrival, Khan chose to stay, hopping from safe house to safe house. In October, betrayal led the Gestapo to discover copies of her secret signals, a careless mistake that cost three fellow agents their lives. Imprisoned for over a year, she was eventually transferred to Dachau concentration camp, where she was executed in 1944.
3 Sarah Emma Edmonds
Sarah Emma Edmonds, better known as Frank Thompson, was a Canadian who crossed into the United States during the Civil War and enlisted in the Union army disguised as a male field nurse. She fought in several battles of the Maryland Campaign of 1862. Though official records of her espionage are scarce, her memoirs detail daring exploits.
She adopted multiple aliases, including Southern sympathizer Charles Mayberry and a Black man named Cuff—using silver nitrate to darken her skin for the latter disguise. After contracting malaria as “Frank Thompson,” she fled to a civilian hospital, fearing discovery. Branded a deserter, she later served as a female nurse in a Washington, D.C. hospital. Post‑war, she authored the bestseller Nurse and Spy in the Union Army, now freely available online.
Edmonds also earned the distinction of being the sole female member of the Grand Army of the Republic, a fraternal organization traditionally reserved for male Civil War veterans.
2 Savitri Devi
Born Maximiani Portas in early‑20th‑century France, Savitri Devi became enthralled with Adolf Hitler during her youth. Inspired by the shared swastika, she attempted to fuse Nazi ideology with Hinduism, eventually concluding that Hitler was a divine avatar akin to Vishnu’s incarnations, destined to vanquish evil, which she identified as the Jews.
Throughout the 1930s, Devi spread pro‑Axis propaganda across India while also gathering intelligence on the British. Traveling across Europe during World War II, she often entertained Allied personnel with her husband, probing them for military details. After the Nazis’ defeat, she persisted in her extremist beliefs, emerging as one of the first Holocaust deniers. Beyond politics, Devi championed animal rights and deep ecology.
1 Jeannie Rousseau
Regarded as one of the most effective World War II spies, Jeannie Rousseau served in Georges Lamarque’s resistance network under the codename “Amniarix.” Living in Paris as tensions rose, her family moved north to evade the Nazis. When the German army arrived, her father volunteered her as a liaison to the occupying forces.
Her striking looks and fluent German enabled her to extract valuable intelligence from German officers, which she eagerly passed to the Allies. When asked why she shared the secrets, she replied, “What’s the point of knowing all that if not to pass it on?” Rousseau’s reports on the Peenemünde rocket development center heavily influenced Churchill’s decision to order the raid, delaying the V‑1 and V‑2 rockets and saving countless lives. Captured multiple times, she survived three concentration camps, unlike many of her compatriots. After the war, she worked as a United Nations interpreter.