Sexism

Blatant sexism threads its way throughout the work. Mundy exposes the various stereotypes about women during this time in American history. She begins with the idea that women were thought either unfit or incapable of the critical and analytical thinking required in higher lever education. At this time, females were not even admitted to the most prestigious schools such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton. Many of the women who end up in code-breaking positions had a passion for math, yet “math was not a subject women were encouraged to study” (8). In fact, very few educational institutions would hire a female math teacher. In truth even those women who did attend college did not escape the intense “pressure to marry” and often times the curricula at these schools catered to domestic duties (26). Certainly women’s rights took a step forward with code-breaking endeavors as at last an educated woman was...