"Uncertain at Present for Women, but May Increase": Opportunities for Women in Wireless Telegraphy during the First World War

Abstract

ABSTRACT:The British General Post Office (GPO) was one of the leading employers of women in Britain between the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, first as telegraph operators and later in telephone exchanges. However, there were ongoing private discussions within the GPO as to the physical capabilities of women, as well as suitable working facilities and traditionally gendered spaces and occupations. These discussions shaped wireless telegraphy as a highly gendered and exclusively masculine profession until the exigencies of the First World War led to limited opportunities for women as domestic wireless operators for the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) from 1917 onward.