Objectives:
The article examines the role of women in contemporary intelligence and security services, with particular attention to the Polish institutional environment and the Internal Security Agency (Agencja Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego, ABW). It asks how women contribute across the intelligence cycle, which organisational and cultural conditions shape their careers, and how public representation affects recruitment, legitimacy and professional status.

Methods:
The study combines a structured narrative review of intelligence studies, gender and organisation research, historical scholarship and official documents with legal-institutional analysis of the Polish framework. It also conducts a secondary analysis of an online pilot survey described in the source thesis.

Results:
Women have long performed operational, analytical, linguistic, technical, liaison and leadership functions, although their contribution was frequently obscured by secrecy and occupational segregation. Contemporary services increasingly depend on analysis, cyber expertise, open-source intelligence, cultural knowledge and inter-agency coordination; these requirements widen the range of relevant professional profiles.

Conclusions:
Women are not an auxiliary category of intelligence personnel but an integral part of the professional workforce. Their organisational value depends primarily on competence, access to assignments, security-cleared career development and inclusion in decision-making. The strongest policy case for gender inclusion is therefore institutional rather than essentialist: services that recruit from a wider talent pool and reduce avoidable career barriers are better positioned to understand diverse operating environments and challenge analytic blind spots.