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@wustl.edu (backup: wrposter@gmail.com) On Thu, Apr 5, 2018 at 3:33 PM, <members-request@lists.sigcis.org> wrote:

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Today's Topics:

1. Postwar radar operators, electronic screens, and gender (Bernard Geoghegan)

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Message: 1 Date: Thu, 05 Apr 2018 15:25:38 +0200 From: Bernard Geoghegan <bernardgeoghegan2010@u.northwestern.edu> To: <members@lists.sigcis.org> Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Postwar radar operators, electronic screens, and gender Message-ID: <9DA083BD-9AF0-4377-90A8-C070FD00615E@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

Department of Digital Humanities

King's College London

The Strand Building

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WC2R 2LS

Office: +44 (0)20 7848 4750

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