Women have been the backbone of technological advancements for hundreds of years, with the majority given little to no recognition for their hard work. Through this blog, we’ll explore the lesser known triumphs of womankind and the force of persevering that led them to their achievements.
America was dragged into World War II by Japan, after they bombed Pearl Harbor when America had not previously been engaged in the war. As a result of this, America immediately had to adjust to the horrors of total war. But in adjusting comes being prepared, and the only way to be prepared for war is if you have intelligence. Intelligence is arguably one of the most important aspects of war. With intelligence, you can be one step ahead of the enemy, if you can understand when and where they’re going to strike next, and their plans for the future of the war. America needed to learn how to gain this intelligence, and fast. But all of the men in America were off fighting in the war. So who were they to turn to?
The answer was women.
While the U.S. Army and the U.S. Navy had different intelligence gathering groups, they both wanted young women, specifically from colleges, to recruit. To develop an intelligence program, they needed people who were cryptanalysts, or in general people who knew how to decipher codes and ciphertext. But it wasn’t easy to find these people. America had not been developing a cryptography program and didn’t have an abundant amount of cryptanalysts waiting to be recruited for their services. So instead, they went to intelligent women in college for their proposed solution: a course in cryptography. These women received letters from administrators of their colleges and arrived at the desired meeting place to understand that there was a course they were invited to take.
As it was a highly top secret course, they weren’t allowed to discuss any words relating to “intelligence” or “cryptanalysts”, as they did not want the enemy figuring out they were developing a unit for these things. Throughout this course, these women would learn about polyalphabetic substitution ciphers, and how to decrypt a Vignere cipher. It was argued whether or not they would receive credit for this course, as it was highly confidential and conducted by the government in a facility other than their college. Due to their time and effort in the course, they decided it would count for credit and was listed on their transcript as a math course. After having taken the course, they would be recruited to work on deciphering actual messages intercepted from enemy countries. But in desperation, the U.S. Army decided to use women who were already in the workforce. Secretaries and librarians were among the many women recruited due to the fact that their skills in their careers translated extremely well in cryptography exploits.
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