Gladys Kathleen Parkin

Gladys Kathleen Parkin (September 27, 1900 – August 3, 1990) was one of the earliest and youngest women to obtain a first-class government-issued radio license. Theirs was one of the first wireless stations in California.

On April 13, 1916, while a fifteen-year-old high school student at the Dominican College in San Rafael, she obtained a first-class commercial radio operator's license from the United States Government with the call sign 6SO. The license entitled her to operate any grade of wireless station and to secure employment on vessels. She was the youngest successful female applicant for a radio license ever examined by the Government at that time.

Parkin was featured on the cover of the October 1916 issue of Electrical Experimenter.

She continued her career working with her brothers, John and Richard, in the family radio business, Parkin Manufacturing Company, manufacturing and operating wireless instruments in San Rafael, California. By the age of 25, she was known by virtually every amateur radio-fan in her district, as she kept up an active interest in radio development and its future possibilities.