10
Women in the UK Intelligence Community
1991 to 53% in 2013/14, it is notable that the intelligence Agencies
have lagged behind, with women making up only 37% of the total
workforce in 2013/14.
53%
Women in the Civil Service and the intelligence Agencies
53%
Percentage of women in the Civil Service 2013/14
Percentage of women in the Civil Service 2013/14
37%
37%
Percentage of women in the three intelligence Agencies 2013/14
5. In the intelligence community change is too slow, yet arguably they
have a greater need for a diverse workforce – not just in terms of
Percentage of women inencouraging
the three intelligence
2013/14
a wide rangeAgencies
of skills and
the biggest talent pool, but
because by the very nature of their work they need to encourage
diversity of thinking that will only come from a diverse workforce. If
all intelligence professionals are from similar backgrounds and have
similar characteristics, they are likely to share ‘unacknowledged biases’
that circumscribe both the definition of problems and the search
for solutions. By contrast, diversity not only gives the organisation
a broader perspective in itself, but by encouraging ‘difference’, staff
feel less pressure to conform, which can lead to greater originality of
thinking. Diversity in the intelligence community should therefore be
sought not only on legal or ethical grounds but because increased
diversity will lead to better intelligence analysis, and a better response
to the range of threats that we face to our national security.
6. There is a clear imperative to increase diversity in order to achieve
operational aims. As the previous Director General of MI5 observed:
If you look like me, then you can’t operate in the operational
areas that we need to operate in. So we are making progress
on [recruiting black and minority ethnic and female black and
minority ethnic staff], but it takes time for that to filter through
the sort of hierarchy at the service.4
4
Oral evidence – MI5, 23 February 2012.