The first woman to lead GCHQ – the UK’s intelligence, security and cyber agency – has been announced, and the agency is encouraging more women to consider national security careers.

Anne Keast-Butler is currently deputy director-general of MI5 and while she will be the first women to hold the post of director in the agency’s 100 year history, her appointment means half of the most senior posts in GCHQ will be held by women.

In further good news, according to the agency, they recruited more women than men last year, but overall the ratio of men to women is 65% to 35%.

A report published by Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee back in 2015 highlighted the imbalance and called on recruiters not to discount women just because of their age or career status, saying women in middle-age or mid-career have valuable life experience to bring to the role.  There has been no appreciable movement in the ratio since, however.  

More recently, neurodivergent women have been targeted, for their abilities in fast pattern recognition, sharper accuracy and greater attention to detail, with the agency quoted in The Guardian as saying: “Some of our most talented and creative people have a neurodiverse profile – including dyslexia, autism, dyscalculia and dyspraxia.”

national security neurodivergence