Ann Caracristi, Who Cracked Codes, and the Glass Ceiling At NSA, Dies At 94 (washingtonpost.com)

An anonymous reader writes with this story at The Washington Post about the life and death of Ann Caracristi. From the article: "Ann Caracristi, who became one of the highest ranking and most honored women at the code breaking National Security Agency after a career extending from World War II through much of the Cold War, died Jan. 10 at her home in Washington. She was 94. ... Ms. Caracristi formally retired from her intelligence career in 1982, after becoming the sixth deputy director of the NSA . . . She was the first woman to serve as deputy director. One of her strengths was reconstructing enemy code books, said Liza Mundy, a former Washington Post staff writer who is working on a book about U.S. female code breakers during the war. Admired for her early accomplishments as a young woman in wartime Washington, Ms. Caracristi was credited in her later career with providing leadership for new generations of code breakers and for her efforts to bring computers and technology to bear on the work. ... One of her jobs at the NSA was as chief from 1959 to 1980 of branches devoted to research and operations. Her honors there included the Defense Department's Distinguished Civilian Service Award and the National Security Medal, among other top federal honors. After retiring, she began serving on a variety of prominent scientific, defense and intelligence advisory boards and committees."

Comments

Looks like the NSA is trying to save face

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear NSA,

We will always hate you, no matter how many articles you write about women, Snowden, or "saving the world ". Fuck you.

Sincerely, We The People

Re: Looks like the NSA is trying to save face

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear "Native Americans",

Might makes right.

And no, you weren't all living peacefully together, singing kum-bay-yah, before the white man came. You were killing each other before deciding to oppose or join sides with the next strongest tribe in town... who happened to come on ships.

Now enjoy your casinos and stfu.

Re:Looks like the NSA is trying to save face

[JoshuaZ]

There's a real problem here. For much of the Cold War, the NSA did its job, and it did it well: spying on the actual enemies of the US while helping make sure that the communications of the US and its allies were secure. They helped make the world safe for democracy. Unfortunately, the work gets very little publicity and it is also very hard to forgive them for things they've done since 9/11. Essentially,they've blown most of their hard-earned good will. It will probably take decades before it is reestablished.

Re: Looks like the NSA is trying to save face

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear All,

Hahaha, U mad bro?

Signed, The NSA

Re:Looks like the NSA is trying to save face

[Anonymous Coward]

Literally internet terrorist misogyny. We need the NSA to protect women from MRAs like you.

Re:Looks like the NSA is trying to save face

[Gr8Apes]

There's a real problem here. For much of the Cold War, the NSA did its job, and it did it well: spying on the actual enemies of the US while helping make sure that the communications of the US and its allies were secure. They helped make the world safe for democracy. Unfortunately, the work gets very little publicity

It got lots of good will prior to the 80s, the NSA was the worst kept secret ever in that they existed and what they did.

and it is also very hard to forgive them for things they've done since 9/11. Essentially,they've blown most of their hard-earned good will. It will probably take decades before it is reestablished.

It hasn't been since just 9/11. The easiest way to tell would be to see when they shunted into AT&Ts main telecom hubs.

Re: Looks like the NSA is trying to save face

[KGIII]

Unlike you, I'm assuming, I actually *am* a Native. I am a tribal member, Micmac if you must know, and am reasonably active in keeping up with the politics even though I do not participate.

That said, there are no white people alive today who were responsible. Some of us got off pretty light, compared to other colonizations but that's not really saying much. I don't normally discuss much of my heritage here (though I've brought it up in the past) because of stupid people - like those who can't spell pristine and feel like they have my permission to speak for me.

Scalping occurred long before the white man rode in on his ship. So did lots of other bad things. They'll happen long into the future because we are humans. I guess, I do have one complaint. If they could uphold just half of those treaties they signed, that'd be a good thing. I mean they, the government, not they any one color.

wow she had a cunt

[Anonymous Coward]

far more important than any of her achievements: SHE HAD A CUNT AND BROKE THRU THE GLASS CEILING!!!

Fuck yeah, she will be the popstar of all the little girls! girls will want to be like her! They are so weak minded, you must tell girls what to want to be! Clinton as next woman president!!

When brains work for the wrong boss ...

[Taco Cowboy]

Ms. Caracristi was a real brainer

I had opportunity of meeting her decades ago and came away very impressed

But ... like so many other brains, she worked for the wrong boss

No, it is not a sin to break codes - the only thing is that NSA has more interests in playing the role of a big brother sidekick than actually protecting our country

RIP, Ms. Caracristi !

Re:When brains work for the wrong boss ...

[ve3oat]

No, Ms. Caracristi worked at the right place at the right time (I had met her too). During the Cold War the rules were very different from what they are today and little consideration was given by anyone in the intelligence community of collecting against domestic targets unless they had a specific target in mind and unless they were prepared to get a court warrant first. And there were very strict rules in the CANUKUS community for handling what was called "incidental intercept" of domestic comms. But it all seemed to change when the Cold War ended and the ECHELON satellite collection system made it so very easy to collect against non-military targets.

Glass ceiling is a term that only originates

[Anonymous Coward]

Glass ceiling is a term that only originates from the late 1970s.

I suppose, like the supposed pay gap myth, it had more to do with women's lifestyle choices and propensity to stick their nose to the grind wheel rather than actual barriers of entry.

Madam Curie and Florence Nightingale showed women leaders can make it far earlier than that. I guess what it's all about then, is not to try to get equality, but like how it's been demonstrated over and over again that not enough women simply enroll in CS when free too (or even when incentivized).... to cheerlead them onto a certain path whether they really want to or not.

Re:Glass ceiling is a term that only originates

[Anonymous Coward]

His opinion of her went down when she had kids. That is the glass ceiling.

I thought it was well known that having a family, generally, means making sacrifices on the career side - as a father or a mother. Not that I like that reality - but that's currently just the way it is.

So all you've shown is that people with families do sometimes get discriminated against in the workplace. Or was there something else that indicated that your sister actually faced discrimination because her gender?

Re:Glass ceiling is a term that only originates

[kaur]

... since she uses 80% or more of her vacation time that she won't be able to handle the job.

In normal societies, using your vacation is more or less an OBLIGATION.
I'd guess that in Europe, even the intelligence agencies ensure that their employees do take out their vacation.

It is also used as a measure against internal fraud. It is difficult to break rules and hide the consequences if you MUST be away from work (and hand over your duties) every year.

Re:Glass ceiling is a term that only originates

[Anonymous Coward]

Except the glass ceiling exists. My sister is dealing with it now. She was told for the last five years a promotion is hers upon retirement of a guy. She gets above average pay raises and bonuses, excellent reviews.

This year she was told she might get the promotion in two years when he retires. That since she uses 80% or more of her vacation time that she won't be able to handle the job. Exact wording.

Must be sexism its the only possible explanation.

Re:Glass ceiling is a term that only originates

[LaurenCates]

"She was told for the last five years a promotion is hers upon retirement of a guy."

Not that I'm necessarily willing to discount sexism here, since I don't know who your sister works for, but this is often how it works whether you're male or female.

Unless your sister is stellar and could create her own position to which she could be promoted, most companies don't want more managers just for the sake of having them because of practical considerations rather than spend money on salary because it looks good on paper that they hired a woman to be a manager.

"His opinion of her went down when she had kids. That is the glass ceiling."

Went down, or found her to be less productive overall because she had family obligations to meet?

I find it strange that business is where we draw the line at distracted productivity.

Let's say I was a competitive weightlifter, and decided to take a year off to have a kid. And when I came back a year later, I couldn't hit the bench for five hours a day like I used to because I was fulfilling the necessary task of taking care of said kid.

Do you think if I showed up at a competition and took 12th place, the judges would feel it necessary to give me a handicap because having a kid kept me from grinding the way other competitors without kids do, and fast-track me into the top 5?

Again, I don't know your sister's situation. But these "all-too-familiar" stories that squarely fit that confirmation bias hole are just too vague for me to nod my head and say "yep, that's sexism."

Re:Glass ceiling is a term that only originates

[LaurenCates]

On thinking about it a little (and being in the same sort of position myself), I'm kind of wondering why your sister isn't doing what I'm doing. Which is: looking for a better job instead of sitting around waiting for the prize to land in her lap?

The guy I work for, if asked, would probably tell you he'd love it if I worked for him forever, but he's smart enough to be realistic about the prospect. He knows that if I were offered a better position tomorrow, he'd hate to have to write a letter of recommendation, but he also knows that if there's no way he can get me promoted from where I am, that it ultimately serves a greater good for me to go elsewhere.

Sure you can tell me about "vested interest" or "built goodwill" or "time in position", but it's a fallacy to think that because you invested time in a position, that you're "entitled" to better. You certainly could be, but why not fulfill that entitlement somewhere that they're willing to give you the benefit of the doubt rather than languishing where you're at?

Re:Glass ceiling is a term that only originates

[PopeRatzo]

Madam Curie and Florence Nightingale showed women leaders can make it far earlier than that.

Madam Curie and Florence Nightingale made a small fraction of the income that men were making.

Re:Glass ceiling is a term that only originates

[AthanasiusKircher]

Unless your sister is stellar and could create her own position to which she could be promoted, most companies don't want more managers just for the sake of having them

I think you need to re-read GP's post again. He was NOT saying, "My sister was forced to wait until this guy retired, and that's unfair."

He WAS saying: "My sister was told for the past FIVE years that she was in line for this guy's job when he retires, but now that his retirement is getting closer, she's been told maybe she will NOT get it because she takes too much vacation time and had kids."

Let's say I was a competitive weightlifter, and decided to take a year off to have a kid. And when I came back a year later, I couldn't hit the bench for five hours a day like I used to because I was fulfilling the necessary task of taking care of said kid.

I think competitive weightlifting is a GREAT comparison to how things should work in the real world. Why? Because even competitive weightlifters mostly wouldn't recommend training more than 40 hours per week -- you'll suffer injury, fatigue, and it will actually be counterproductive since your muscles need to rest periodically to rejuvenate and grow.

Frankly, the same thing is true of your brain. Studies have shown that overall productivity is greater if people take vacations -- they more than make up for the "lost time" by taking a break periodically. Same thing goes for working too many hours -- sure, you're at the job longer, so it LOOKS like you must be working harder, but it's often increasingly hard to focus for those long stretches of time.

Anyhow, going back to GP -- the person currently in the position takes even MORE vacation time and takes 3-day weekends. GP's sister is being told she can't handle the job, though, even when she takes less vacation time (and presumably doesn't take 3-day weekends). Setting aside the ridiculous but common use of "taking vacation time" as a negative in job performance[**SEE NOTE], there seems to be an explicitly different standard invoked. Obviously we don't know the whole story, but the facts don't surprise me one bit.

I still recall when my wife went to a professional conference when she was pregnant. She ran into a senior colleague who used to admire her work, and his first reaction seeing her pregnant was, "Well... I see you've chosen a different path..."

Or, for another example, when my son was small, there was a time when my job permitted me to keep my schedule a little more flexible, so I would do more of the picking up from daycare/preschool and such. When I very occasionally had to schedule a meeting around this or something, my colleagues were generally really supportive -- they seemed to think I was "being a good, involved dad."

On the other hand, my wife was advised by numerous friends, family members, and colleagues NEVER to say she needed to take a day off or needed to schedule a meeting around a sick kid or something. To do so would brand her as yet another "unreliable mother" whose parenting was hurting job performance.

The double-standard is real. Maybe it isn't everywhere, or it's stronger in some places than others. Regardless, like the competitive weight-trainers, the vast majority of jobs simply don't require somebody to be completely focused doing specific duties 60 hours/week. (And if they do, most of those jobs should probably be split and more people hired.) In many cases, women are disadvantaged because of the APPEARANCE of less involvement at work -- perhaps they don't go out for as many dinners or drinks with colleagues because they need to get home to kids or whatever, or they spend a few less hours in the office, but they make up for it with work they take home or in more concentrated bursts during the day.

And I know some other poster will reply and tell some story about some woman who was completely unreliable once she had kids, etc. Yes, that does happen. And sometimes men become

Re:Glass ceiling is a term that only originates

[avandesande]

So you are suggesting they can the guy right before his retirement and give her his job?

Re:Glass ceiling is a term that only originates

[tnk1]

That's not sexism, your sister is just working for a bunch of dicks. Tell her to get a new job. Waiting for an opening in a company is a shitty way of getting a promotion these days. That's why you switch jobs. If they really want her to stay on, they'll kick this guy upstairs to some sort of oversight position and let your sister the do the job. If they believe she's replaceable, then there is no guarantee their promises to her will stick. They'll just hire some other old man to take the position.

Vacation is something you want your team to take, and I am strongly considering requiring my team to take mandatory vacations this year, both for oversight purposes, but also because they are fucking useless when burnt out. So am I, for that matter.

Re:Glass ceiling is a term that only originates

[AthanasiusKircher]

So all you've shown is that people with families do sometimes get discriminated against in the workplace. Or was there something else that indicated that your sister actually faced discrimination because her gender?

I don't know the whole story here, but I've seen the "double standard" at work. I've seen fathers who occasionally have to take a half-day off with a sick kid praised by coworkers as an "involved dad." I've seen mothers with the exact same behavior complained about as an "unfocused parent" who created some minor inconvenience for others but needs to "pay more attention to her work."

Is this less common than it was a couple decades ago? I'm sure. But it's there. I don't have enough information about GP's situation to know what's going on, but I absolutely have seen first-hand where older colleagues have judged women to have become less dedicated to a job even just by getting pregnant -- even before they had a kid.

And just to be clear -- it's not just male bias. Often the harshest critics of women are other women. However, to be fair, I also know from first-hand experience that women are often advised (by other women) to HIDE the fact that they need to rearrange a schedule to deal with a kid rather than reveal it at work. Which makes it a self-perpetuating problem.

Re:Glass ceiling is a term that only originates

[LaurenCates]

Maybe you should read the GP's post again.

The story is so vague, so missing in detail, that there are SO many variables unaccounted for. And it seems that the GP IS saying that his sister's job IS being unfair: she hasn't been promoted because the only reason she's not being promoted is because she has to wait for someone else to vacate a job she CAN be promoted to. And as I said before: so what? I'm sure a number of men on this board (Government employees especially) have been in the same Shakespearian type of situation: someone has to die before someone else can ascend.

In fact, I've worked for a company whose promotion structure is more or less: "unless we can justify your promotion, we won't promote you". Well, then, the gap in the story is either the sister was sitting around waiting for a promotion that may or may not happen, or she's not some rock star performer that the company is willing to give her a promotion for a position that doesn't exist and has no given reason to exist.

Maybe it IS sexism that she hasn't been promoted elsewhere. Or maybe it isn't. But it doesn't seem to me from context that the GP thinks it's for any reason other than sexism. Because glass ceiling.

And yes, while I did see the part about use of vacation time, it's not nearly enough to corroborate with the rest of the information available to me, other than the fact that context of the post dictates sexism. Well...so what if that guy does use his vacation time? She may get done in 30 hours what three people do in 40, but he might get done what 5 people do in 20. Or maybe he has a friend in management that lets him get away with it. Who knows? I don't, but I'm not going to jump to sexism because the "victim" of the injustice in the scenario is female.

I'm not saying there shouldn't be a reasonable expectation for people doing their jobs once they have kids, but we're not all top performers. Most people, once they settle into family life, rightly, want to be there for their kids. But we all only have 24 hours in a day. And that means no matter how much work you might take home, the time you spend with your kids is not time you spend keeping spun up on the latest and greatest. In any fast-moving industry, perception that you're spending your time assimilating information and/or networking to create connections that facilitate moneymaking prospects will help you advance your career is kind of important, and YOU can "like it or not".

If I ever had kids, I'd happily accept that spending time with them probably means that there will be time in a day that I won't be doing work that someone else will. I would also happily accept that limits my advancement in a career. People need to stop getting so defensive about that.

Re:Glass ceiling is a term that only originates

[vel-ex-tech]

It's not the only possible explanation, of course, but if you really want to take the red pill, you'll see that sexism is alive and well.*

Try to read what GP actually wrote. There is clearly a double-standard going on here with a good probability.

I mean, the other place I'd look is nepotism. Either way, it's not looking fair, and I'd suggest GP's sister start looking for another job. Sometimes jumping ship for greener pastures is the only way towards a promotion.

* Amazon qualification: when you take the red pill, you'll note that there's a large majority of women who believe a woman's place is in the kitchen. This makes them happy. Whatever. They're not me, and I don't give a fuck about non-Amazon feminists who want to blame me for them.

Re:Glass ceiling is a term that only originates

[Anonymous Coward]

This is actually getting beyond ridiculous...we are all posting to the summary of a story about a woman who reached very high heights in her career (I don't want to say 'pinnacle' because only SHE can know how high she wanted to go) and as such is effectively 'anecdotal evidence' that the 'glass ceiling did NOT in fact exist' but we are all expected to take this GP's anecdotal evidence about his sister as better evidence that it DOES exist...say what?

Just more evidence that today 'black is white, white is black, up is down & down is up'...o well I will dutifully follow my 're-education' program. :-)

Re:Glass ceiling is a term that only originates

[ultranova]

Glass ceiling is a term that only originates from the late 1970s.

Hidden sexism originates from the same era where open sexism became unfashionable. Imagine that. But of course you did, which is why you posted AC.

Re:Glass ceiling is a term that only originates

[Darinbob]

Naw, if you check out middle and upper management men, they almost all have kids. A few exceptions here and there but overwhelmingly the people who get ahead in business are family men. If it's not a hindrance for a man then it shouldn't be a hindrance for a woman.

I've never seen family people get discriminated against more than single people. However I *have* seen discrimination the other way. The person without a family gets assigned to work over the weekend ("it wouldn't be fair to Jack, he's got kids").

Re:Glass ceiling is a term that only originates

[Darinbob]

It's the stereotype. Men men are expected to work, women are expected to be domestic. The ideas from the 50s with Father Knows Best and Leave It To Beaver. Mom stays home, dad goes to work except on the weekend when he goes golfing. The times are changing for sure but the biases remain. Especially in some countries it's like going back in a time machine, Japan for instance seriously expects women to stop working once they become mothers and men don't dare ask for a day off in the middle of the week for something a woman can handle. In the US the concept of both mom and dad working full time is becoming a lot more common, and it's probably much more accepted by younger generations whereas older people have the lingering bias. Europe's definitely better here as you're practically forced to take vacation and hardly anyone is in the office after 5pm (American is a country of workaholics and companies rely on small teams and overworking them).

So when a man spends some day with the kids he is praised for bending towards more balance, as long as the work gets done and besides it's just one day and no one worries about it. If his wife gets pregnant it's no big deal because they assume he will still spend at least 350 days of the year in the office. The man is not expected to choose work versus home because he's working by default. The woman who's expected to spend time is automatically considered different for being at work (though this is changing over time). No one expects her to be in the office 250 days of the year or come in on the weekends voluntarily and without prompting. An internal bias may assume she's already spending lots of time at home as a mother, so any additional day taken off is treated suspiciously. If she gets pregnant this confirms the doubts that she wasn't 100% devoted to work.

Again, I'm not saying we're mired in overt sexism, and America is definitely improving in this regard. But from attitudes I've seen from the 70s to the present I still see that bias even if it's dwindled quite a lot (or at least in California it has).

Re:Glass ceiling is a term that only originates

[Darinbob]

So any evidence is rejected by you, even statistics? The obvious thing to do is just look around at who gets promoted and their qualifications. There are lots of male managers which is to be expected given the ratio of men to women. However those managers cover the whole range, from geniuses to barely functional idiots with the majority being boringly average. However for women managers they're almost all above average. Hardly anyone promotes the slightly below average woman to manager even though you see slightly below average male managers in every direction. Just look at the bell curve at any random company and see how well the average does between men and women.

Re:Glass ceiling is a term that only originates

[Darinbob]

American shrinks down its teams so much in the name of productivity that there's no wiggle room for someone to take off too much time. There's no redundancy built in. If you take off a week then when you come back you now are a week behind and have to work extra hard.

Re:Glass ceiling is a term that only originates

[Darinbob]

Unless your sister is stellar and could create her own position to which she could be promoted, most companies don't want more managers just for the sake of having them

However this does not seem to apply to men. You can have an average guy, not the best, not pulling his full weight, and he gets promoted. I see companies with redundant managers whose teams have been dissolved but they don't fire the manager because they know they'll need one in the future (it's bizarre but I've seen it at more than one company). How come men can be average and get promoted but women have to be stellar in order to be promoted?

Companies do not tend to promote only the best and brightest. Just look around.

Re:Omgz SJW

[hughbar]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... is dead, sorry. But he is a very powerful magician, so he might not be, something like Schrodinger's Cat but with Satanism instead of Quantum. They both end with 'm', so there are sympathetic vibrations.

A true patriot, when that used to mean something

[Bearhouse]

When the NSA spied on our enemies, not on us.

Re:A true patriot, when that used to mean somethin

[AHuxley]

Yes moved from the Army's Signal Intelligence Service under William F. Friedman the US Army's best cryptologist.
William F. Friedman really wanted to work with the UK in early 1940 but was blocked by the then powerful US Navy that was duplicating US decoding efforts and did not want to share with the US army.
William Friedman was then focused on diplomatic encryption systems eg Japan.
By 1946 the post war agreements over sharing and 5 eye got a lot of attention, a new way to collect all due to new sites long term.
A later fear for the NSA was that the emerging EU would have a lot of complex national encryption systems that would lock out the NSA and US interests. US and NATO pressure ensured the NSA could always backdoor all emerging crypto products the EU was offered. The US would ensure Western Europe would always revert to plain text on any system ever used or allowed to be used.
Ann Caracristi moved from Japanese to Russian military codes, got to the "supergrade" civilian equivalent and then moved to A Group, ie Soviet mil codes.
Russia knew its was totally open to US and UK collection but had so much material to move one time pads could not keep up.
So Russia had to use machine efforts just to ensure speed and the ability to send ever more material. The network was understood to be weak and the US, UK collected all into the 1960's.
The Rainfall results followed into the 1970's getting bulk Soviet material.
Collect it all was always the mission since before WW2 for the US and UK just under different groups and funding.

Re: Is she the same woman...

[PopeRatzo]

Every so often, I browse Slashdot comments at 0, just so I can see what the AC's are going on about.

It's sort of like looking under the refrigerator. Momentary disgust then getting up and forgetting I ever saw that. Life is too short.

Re:A true patriot, when that used to mean somethin

[neo-mkrey]

Why is this marked as 'Troll', when it is the truth?