[SIGCIS-Members] Members Digest, Vol 38, Issue 2

[Winifred Poster]

Bernard,

These are amazing images -- thank you for sharing.  Seems parallel to the
history of women in cybersecurity that I outline a bit in this article in
Nature:  http://rdcu.be/J11Q   It has picture of the ENIAC women in
computer programming, for instance, but also other cases of women's
involvement as "code girls" for decoding, encryption, etc., over the last
century.

There are great examples from the history of the telephone as well.  Venus
Green covers women as early commercial telephone operators, and Elizabeth
Cobb has a recent book on the "hello girls" of WWI, as military
communications officers for Signal Core.

Your picture of the air traffic controller reminds me of Lucy Suchman's
work in this area, when she studied them in the 1990s.  You might ask her
if there were women in her fieldwork.

Would love to continue the conversation,

Winnie Poster

_______________________________________
Dr. Winifred R. Poster
International Studies/International Affairs Program
Washington University, St. Louis
Campus Box 1085
One Brookings Drive
St. Louis, MO 63130
www.winifredposter.com
wposter at wustl.edu
(backup: wrposter at gmail.com)


On Thu, Apr 5, 2018 at 3:33 PM, <members-request at lists.sigcis.org> wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
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>    1.  Postwar radar operators, electronic screens, and gender
>       (Bernard Geoghegan)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 05 Apr 2018 15:25:38 +0200
> From: Bernard Geoghegan <bernardgeoghegan2010 at u.northwestern.edu>
> To: <members at lists.sigcis.org>
> Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Postwar radar operators, electronic screens,
>         and gender
> Message-ID: <9DA083BD-9AF0-4377-90A8-C070FD00615E at u.northwestern.edu>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Dear Members,
>
>
>
> Does anyone happen to have any primary or secondary source references on
> the role of gender in defining the radar operator and other users of
> electronic interfaces/screens of the 1950s and 1960s? At first I thought
> that these devices and this work were conceived with male users in mind.
> Photographs and films of operators of SAGE-type systems mostly depict male
> soldiers. However, I?ve run across two popular articles from the mid 50s
> that seem to show women-identifying users working as radar operators. I
> wonder if they?re typical, if they reflect a broader diversity of
> ?operators? of the emerging electronic interfaces of the period:
>
>
>
> https://books.google.se/books?id=oN0DAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA112&lpg=
> PA112&dq=volscan+radar&source=bl&ots=VCDYA-8THX&sig=
> tTkxbof6EM5YSrARAEIJ-dnWMy4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiw9cy3m6PaAhXQZpoKHXsmA
> z4Q6AEILzAB#v=onepage&q=volscan%20radar&f=false
>
>
>
> http://www.rfcafe.com/references/popular-electronics/radar-tames-wild-
> blue-yonder-popular-electronics-november-1956.htm
>
>
>
> This being a key site where early theories of HCI and ?man-computer
> symbiosis? are worked out, I?m trying to figure out what role gender?marked
> or unmarked?played in the design of particular kinds of interfaces,
> conceptions of certain kind of users. Thanks for any feedback you can offer.
>
>
>
> Best, b
>
>
>
> --
>
> Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan
>
> Senior Lecturer in the History and Theory of Digital Media
>
> www.bernardg.com
>
>
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