Deadlier than the male by far

If you want something done, ask a busy woman, the adage goes. After all, she's already juggling career, children, in-laws and cooking dinner every evening, so deworming the dog shouldn't prove too much of a stretch.

But what if you want to counter the new and polymorphous threat of state-sponsored terrorism? Engage in politically explosive surveillance of allied nations? Or carry out morally dubious acts of sabotage against shadowy foes? For this the person you really need on speed dial is - a busy woman.

According to an anonymous female officer of Britain's foreign intelligence service, MI6, women make "bloody good spies" thanks to their emotional intelligence, empathy, and ability to park their ego and work closely in a team.

And having children is a plus, and not just because men in general and terrorists in particular tend to underestimate the critical faculties of anyone with a handbag crammed with wet wipes.

Until recently, the skills set of female spies has been defined in terms of their sexuality. Mata Hari, the Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan who was accused of spying for Germany in World War1 and shot for espionage, was the embodiment of the devious femme fatale.

Ian Fleming's philandering female spies deployed hi-tech gadgetry and could high-kick like cage fighters, but usually while wearing a bikini.

Now female security agents have come into their own and even screen portrayals of them have become more complex - and more compelling.

In the Oscar-winning movie Zero Dark Thirty, about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, Jessica Chastain's character, the intense analyst Maya, was based on a real-life CIA operative. While others in the agency wavered during the hunt for the man behind 9/11, the real-life Maya repeatedly declared that she was "100%" certain Bin Laden was hiding in that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where he was eventually killed in 2011.

When an e-mail was sent around the agency announcing that she was among a group of officers to be decorated for their Bin Laden triumph, "Maya" is said to have clicked "reply-all" and unleashed a tirade.

"You guys tried to obstruct me," was the gist, according to one recipient. "You fought me. Only I deserve the award."

No female self-deprecation there.

Lindsay Moran, a former CIA officer and author of Blowing My Cover: My Life As a Spy, agrees that women in general and mothers in particular have the right stuff. "Many of techniques I was being trained in came naturally to me," said Moran.

"One was attention to personal security. Long before I was a spy, I had an instinct about who was suspicious and who might be following me. Like any woman entering a dark parking ground, I would have my keys threaded through my fingers. Men just don't think the same way."

Another important trait is the ability simply to sit and listen, at length, to another person. Women have a lot of practice at this, observed Moran wryly.

Men are more likely to open up to a woman and are much less likely to suspect she is an intelligence officer. "A man will complain about how he's being treated at work and when a woman says, 'That sounds terrible' he'll just keep speaking.

"Being a mother is useful," said Moran, "because it gives you a different status, and a middle-aged woman with kids is 10 times less likely to arouse suspicion. It also helps engender a certain protectiveness towards your agents in the field."