Codebreaking the Glass Ceiling:
Women on the Frontier of WWII Cryptanalysis
Arlington Hall. United State Departement of Defense.
The U.S. military’s cryptography headquarters were located at Arlington Hall, a former girls’ school in Arlington, Virginia, which housed 121 bombe machines operated by WAVES officers. The codebreaking women living at Arlington Hall were given overcrowded barracks and forced to work long hours.
U.S. Army
SIS Cryptologists in Arlington Hall. National Security Agency. Ca. 1945
Bunk Life.
Arlington Public Library.“You know, there’s just that set of hours in there, you know, you feel like
you’re just not with it at all. And your
meal times are so mixed up because we would be eating .. what would normally be dinner in the evening,
we would probably
be eating at 2:30 or 3 o’clock in the morning and then you would go home at 8 o’clock and try to go to
bed, you know,
and maybe have a bite to eat before you go to bed at 8 o’clock .. or 9 o’clock in the morning.” - Sue
Unger, WAVES Officer
Women
Cryptologists at Work at Arlington Hall Station in Arlington, Virginia. National Security
Agency.
Jarche, James.
A World War II cryptographer studies a math solution to a secret message while working in a
Washington,
D.C., laboratory. February 4, 1944.
In addition to regular officer requirements, female codebreakers also needed strong math and pattern recognition skills. Many codebreakers were recent college graduates who had planned to become teachers, one of the few professions in which women could use their education.