MI6 has never had a woman as spy chief. That could be about to change

LONDON (AP) — Real-life spies say their world is nothing like that of James Bond, but in one way truth may soon follow fiction: MI6 could be about to get its first woman leader.

Britain’s foreign intelligence agency launched a search for its next chief on Tuesday, and the current officeholder has suggested he’d like his replacement to be a woman. Although Judi Dench played M, the fictional head of MI6, in seven Bond thrillers starting in the 1990s, the real-life agency has not had a woman chief in its 116-year history.

Richard Moore, the current C — as the real-life MI6 chief is known — wrote on X in 2023 that he would “help forge women’s equality by working to ensure I’m the last C selected from an all-male shortlist.”

Britain’s two other main intelligence agencies have already shattered the spy world’s glass ceiling. MI5, the domestic security service, was led by Stella Rimington from 1992 to 1996 and Eliza Manningham-Buller between 2002 and 2007. Anne Keast-Butler became head of electronic and cyber-intelligence agency GCHQ in 2023.

Moore, an Oxford-educated former diplomat, fits the 007 mold like a Savile Row suit. But in recent years MI6 has worked to shed its image as the least diverse of the agencies, broadening its recruitment process from the traditional “tap on the shoulder” at an elite university.

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The agency’s website stresses its family-friendly flexible working policy and goal of recruiting “talented people from all backgrounds.”

In 2021, Moore apologized on behalf of MI6 for its treatment of LGBT staff and aspiring agents who were fired or denied jobs because of their sexuality. Gay people were barred from working for the agency until 1991.

Moore said in a 2023 speech that he wanted MI6 to “better represent the country we serve.”

“Diversity brings greater creativity, better problem-solving,” he said.

In posts on X last week to mark International Women’s Day, Moore said: “No one gets a job in MI6 except on merit. But we men, as allies, can help our female colleagues achieve the success their talent deserves. We have yet to have a woman as Chief so there’s still a glass ceiling to shatter.”

Moore, appointed in 2020, has led MI6 through the COVID pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war. He has opened the secretive agency ever-so-slightly to media scrutiny, making public speeches and embracing social media.

Like many things about MI6, also known as the Secret Intelligence Service, the process of choosing Moore’s replacement takes place out of public view. It began with the country’s top civil servant, Cabinet Secretary Chris Wormald, writing to government departments on Tuesday asking them to put forward candidates.

Applicants may come from among three MI6 directors-general who report to Moore, all of whom are women. That includes the agency’s head of operations and its technology chief – the real-life equivalent of Bond gadget-master Q.

Applicants also could come from other intelligence agencies, the civil service, the diplomatic service, the armed forces or the police.

An announcement of the choice is likely in the summer, with the new chief taking up their post in the fall.