NEW CAREER FOR WOMEN

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2721, 16 March 1916, Page 3

NEW CAREER FOR WOMEN

' WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY AS A ! CALLING. (By a Woman Correspondent in the : . "Times Mail.") At present wireless telegraphy would appear .to offer a useful ana suitable occupation for 'educated women. _ An inquiry sent to various' large wireless telegraphy schools and companies in the United Kingdom showed a consensus of. opinion that Women are eminently suited for the work. The head of avlarge Scottish training school* declares that women make exceptional students, and the report from another school states that women "have proved themselves' equal to the . men in grasping technical and theoretical matters, and usually surpass men in telegraphy." . ■ • iThe.work of transmitting and receiving messages,, listening for distress calls, keeping the wirelss apparatus in order, and . repairing any minor breakdowns is well within tho compass of women, and none of the processes offers any insuperable difficulties. '"With .regard to the qualifications a.woman wire- • Jess' telegraphist should possess, the school 'curriculum covers' the whole of the ground necessary for obtaining the Postmaster-Genoral's certificate, without which qualification no person is allowed to operato commercial wireless installations. . The training, which is of a simple' character, lasts generally from six to nine months, while the salary usually begins at £1 or 30s. a week and rises to £2 15s. or £3, with board and accommodation provided. In a-ship, the operator has occasionally to take a hand in assisting the :)ship's crew in. dismantling and stowing away the aerials when tho vessel is entering certain ports, but such work would probably not be beyond the powers of women who have driven motorambulances at the front, nor would the sisters or the nurses who have faced the. difficulties .and ■ dangers of the' retreat from Serbia find keeping watch at 'night, which' is one of the duties of the wireless telegraphist, much of t a hardship. :It is part of a nurse's ordinary routine. In spite, 'however, of the •; ability shown by women where they have trained for this work, the wireless telegraphy schools are naturally reluctant to train women 111 large numbers for posts which they cannot guarantee their obtaining after training. At present, although women are working on stations in America, Canada, and several of our colonies, they are very little employed in Great Britain. The future of wireless telegraphy, in the. opinion of a large wireless telegraphy firm, lies probably iii the development of land tions,'and: of stations on board ships. So farj there have been no. very definite prospects for women in the latter direction, but even in the United Kingdom the, f"itish Government has appointed women in charge of wireless stations at Rathlyn Island and the Island of Mull, and it is probable that in the near future women's work, in this first direction will largely increase.