An American woman who was a spy during World War II will posthumously receive the Legion of Merit at her burial next week, Sen. Mark Warner announced Thursday. Stephanie Rader, who served at the U.S. embassy in Poland, was recommended twice for the award but was likely snubbed because she was one of the few female employees of the Office of Strategic Services, which later became the CIA. “Stephanie Rader was a trailblazer for women in the ‘old boy network’ at the OSS, and we can find no legitimate reason why this commendation was denied, other than the pervasive gender discrimination which existed in the early days of the American intelligence community right after World War II,” Warner said in a statement. Rader died in January at the age of 100.
