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Women to the Top of the Pole …

by Trine Pondal Madsen

Right from the start in the 1850’s the State Telegraph Service considered to employ women. At that time it was an unusual thought in a technical trade. However, it was based on sheer economic speculation. It was generally accepted to pay women less than men for performing the same work.


A cartoon made in 1905 features Olga Cathrine Louise Larsen née Juhl at the top of the telegraph poles. She was one of the women who were made the laughingstock during the year that would later mark equal rights for men and women within the State Telegraph.

It is beyond dispute that many women were well qualified as telegraph operators. Neat and readable handwriting, fault-less Danish spelling, and good knowledge of French, English, and German were demanded. After a short training period they would have to pass a practical test in telegraphing and the Morse alphabet. Exactly the same demands were made to men.

When Olga entered the Telegraph Service in 1902, the Telegraph Service employed about 130 women. During the first years Olga drew lower wages than her male colleagues. The explanation was that the women did not have the same education as the men – as a matter of fact women were de-nied access to the education. Men in wage bracket 4 were paid DKK 1,000-1,800 per year whereas women were fobbed off with DKK 800-1,200. Moreover, the Ministry of Finance had decided in 1872 that female employees of the Telegraph Service should be dismissed once they married.

However, women would no longer put up with such wretched conditions, and they put pressure on the management. At first, tempers were soothed by paying a "trousseau aid" (1/20 of the yearly wages per employment year) when the women got married. But in 1905 women were allowed to stay after marriage. They also gained access to the courses which were previously reserved for male telegraph operators and obtained thereby the same wages.

The courses even comprised practical linesman’s work in telegraph poles. To see women climb the poles wearing their long skirts was considered both ridiculous and piquant by the male part of the population. At that time it was unimaginable that women would wear trousers for the purpose. According to the cartoon men were mainly absorbed in the increased chance of a peep of what was under the girls’ skirts!

A photo of Olga at the top of a telegraph pole proves that in reality it took place quite peacefully - although the cultivated women from good bourgeois homes probably had to endure quite a bit of teasing when moving among rude linesmen.

Olga benefited from the new conditions from 1905. She obtained the same salary and rights as the men and kept her job after her marriage in 1908.

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