What changed
Women in amateur radio — edited Aug 31, 2026 by Unknown editor
This is the first recorded version, so every line is shown as added. Note: Imported from content/wiki
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Women have been licensed amateur operators since the first years of federal licensing, and the
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record is much longer than the hobby's own reputation suggests.
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## Early operators
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- **Gladys Kathleen Parkin** of California earned a commercial first-grade operator license as a
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teenager in 1916, building much of her own equipment; she was widely written up in the radio press
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of the day.
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- Contemporary magazines and league rosters record women operating and building stations throughout
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the 1910s and 1920s, at a time when very little else in engineering was open to them.
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- Wartime demand for skilled operators and instructors drew many more women into radio work, some of
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whom stayed on the amateur bands afterward.
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## Organizing
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The **Young Ladies' Radio League (YLRL)**, founded in 1939, is the long-running international
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organization for licensed women operators. It runs its own contests and awards, publishes a
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newsletter, and offers scholarships. "YL" is the standard on-air abbreviation for a woman operator —
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"OM," old man, is the counterpart, and neither has anything to do with age.
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Many national societies and clubs now run their own initiatives, and youth and school programs are
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where the numbers actually move. See [youth and schools](/wiki/clubs/youth-and-schools).
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## Where things stand
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Women remain a small minority of licensees in most countries, and the gap is widest in the oldest
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age brackets — which says more about who was recruited in 1965 than about who is interested now.
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What demonstrably helps:
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- **Licensing classes and exam sessions that are not intimidating.** A session run by strangers in a
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basement recruits nobody; a session at a library or school with somebody to greet you does.
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- **Visible operators.** People join hobbies where they see people like themselves. Put your club's
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operators on the air and in the newsletter.
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- **Youth programs.** School clubs, scouting events like Jamboree on the Air, and STEM tie-ins reach
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people before they have decided the hobby is not for them.
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- **Not tolerating bad behavior on the air.** Clubs and net controls set the standard; casual harassment
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drives people off the bands and is also a rules problem — see
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[operating etiquette](/wiki/operating/operating-etiquette).
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## If you are getting started
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Nothing about the license, the exams or the equipment is gendered, and no one on the air can tell
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anything about you except your callsign and your signal. Start at
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[getting started](/wiki/getting-started), and find a local club through NARA's
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[club directory](https://usnara.org/find-a-club) — clubs with an active youth or newcomer program are
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the easiest places to land.