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Mum by Day, Spy by Night: British Intel to Recruit More Mothers as Spies

© AP PhotoActors Daniel Craig, right, and Dame Judi Dench pose for photographs at the photo call for the new James Bond film titled Skyfall.
Actors Daniel Craig, right, and Dame Judi Dench pose for photographs at the photo call for the new James Bond film titled Skyfall. - Sputnik International
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Move over James Bond, Britain's security agencies have been told to try and recruit more middle-aged women and mothers to be the country's new spies, while agencies should look to advertise on websites popular with parents, such as Mumsnet.

A report by British parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) has called for greater diversification of the country's security services — MI5, MI6 and GCHQ — with an emphasis to be placed on recruiting more women, Britain's own batch of 'Jane Bonds'.

The ISC study found that there was a "very traditional male mentality and outlook" in British intelligence, and that a more diverse group of employees could benefit the agencies' operational capacity.

"If all intelligence professionals are cut from the same cloth, sharing similar backgrounds and similar characteristics, then they are likely to share 'unacknowledged biases' which will circumscribe both the definition of problems and the search for solutions," committee member Hazel Blears said.

Despite two women previously heading up MI5, only 37 percent of Britain's 12,000 intelligence agency staff are female, well below the 53 percent in the rest of the nation's civil service.

This push to recruit more women through particular websites popular with parents, such as parental advice site Mumsnet, was part of a number recommendations made by the ISC report.

© Flickr / Beth Jusino"Women or mothers in middle age or mid-career have valuable life experience and may offer an untapped recruitment pool," the report said.
Women or mothers in middle age or mid-career have valuable life experience and may offer an untapped recruitment pool, the report said.  - Sputnik International
"Women or mothers in middle age or mid-career have valuable life experience and may offer an untapped recruitment pool," the report said.

"The agencies should therefore use a broad range of mediums and include those specifically aimed at women and mothers — such as Mumsnet."

The findings have drawn praise from former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who worked to introduce similar measures to America's CIA.

"As Ms Blears rightly says, diversity should be pursued — not just on legal or ethical grounds, important as these are in their own right — but because it will result in a better response to the range of threats that threaten national security," she said in a statement.

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