From “Divine Secrets of the RYBAT Sisterhood: Four Senior Women of the Directorate of Operations Discuss Their Careers,” the transcript of a recently declassified 2004 conversation among five high-ranking female CIA officials, whose last names have been redacted. “RYBAT” is a CIA cryptonym for information that is extremely sensitive. The transcript was released last October to accompany the report “From Typist to Trailblazer: The Evolving View of Women in the CIA’s Workforce.”

carla: When I came in, in 1965, the first assumption was that any female you met in the hallway was a secretary or a…