In 1950, there were 342,000 telephone switchboard operators working for the Bell Telephone System and some independent operators, as well as another 1 million or so telephone switchboard operators who worked at private locations like office buildings, factories, hotels, and apartment buildings.
Almost all of these switchboard operators were female. To put it another way, about one out of every 13 working women in 1950 were telephone operators. But by 1984, national employment as an operator in the telecommunications industry was down to 40,000, and now it’s less than 2,000 (according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics).
David […]
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