Lisa Kinch Twitter: @tele_exchange Instagram: @tele_exchange Email: l.kinch@lancaster.ac.uk Thesis: The Telephone Exchange Building (1945-1981): Technology, ‘Official Architecture’ and the State Lancaster University

Visions of Welfare conference was held at the Garden Museum in London on the 15th of May, 2023. It was co-hosted by the Women of the Welfare Landscape Project, the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain and the Women in Danish Architecture project. It allowed Lisa to explore a small aspect of a PhD research project focusing on the architectural history of telephone exchange buildings.
The paper, ‘Beyond the Operator: The Women Connecting the Welfare State,’ delved into the contributions of women across the UK’s nationalised telecommunications industry to illustrate the complexity and diversity of female professionals who helped create and connect spaces across the Welfare State. 
Women have, for over a century, contributed to the design and construction of vital infrastructure networks. However, they often remain unnamed, hidden behind organisational obscurity, and much work remains to uncover further details and histories. The conference paper named some of these women and brought to light new areas of research, which were shared with an international audience and prompted reflections on the varied roles and contributions of women in the Welfare State.

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