- Born
- 28 May 1866
Richmond, Victoria, Australia - Died
- 10 March 1927
Longueville, New South Wales, Australia - Occupation
- Trade unionist
- Alternative Names
- Kraegen, Louisa (married name, 22 December 1903 - 10 March 1927)
Summary
Louisa Dunkley co-founded the Victorian Women's Post and Telegraph Association in 1900. A campaigner for equal pay for women, she joined the Postmaster-General's Department in 1882. By 1890 Dunkley had passed the proficiency tests and transferred to the Chief Telegraph Office as a telegraphist. In the 1890s she helped to establish a committee of women telegraphists and postmistresses to present a case for equal pay, with their male colleagues in the Post and Telegraph Department of Victoria. They received increases in salary, though not equality with men telegraphists. Because the male union discourages female members the Victorian Women's Post and Telegraph Association was established in 1900 with Dunkley as vice-president. She represented the association at the telegraphists' conference in October 1900 at Sydney, where she met her future husband, Edward Charles Kraegen, secretary of the New South Wales and Commonwealth Post and Telegraph associations from 1885 to 1904.
