In the early days of

telephony Telephony ( ) is the field of technology involving the development, application, and deployment of telecommunications services for the purpose of electronic transmission of voice, fax, or data, between distant parties. The history of telephony is ...

, companies used manual telephone switchboards, and switchboard operators connected calls by inserting a pair of phone plugs into the appropriate jacks. They were gradually phased out and replaced by automated systems, first those allowing direct dialing within a local area, then for long-distance and international direct dialing.

Description

A typical manual telephone switchboard has a vertical panel containing an array of jacks with a desk in front. The desk has a row of switches and two rows of plugs attached to cables that retract into the desk when not in use. Each pair of plugs was part of a

cord circuit In telecommunications, a cord circuit is a switchboard circuit in which a plug-terminated cord is used to establish connections manually between user lines or between trunks and user lines. A number of cord circuits are furnished as part of the ...

with a switch associated that let the operator participate in the call or ring the circuit for an incoming call. Each jack had a light above it that lit when the customer's telephone receiver was lifted (the earliest systems required the customer to hand-crank a

magneto A magneto is an electrical generator that uses permanent magnets to produce periodic pulses of alternating current. Unlike a dynamo, a magneto does not contain a commutator to produce direct current. It is categorized as a form of alternator, ...

to alert the central office and, later, to "ring off" the completed call). Lines from the central office were usually arranged along the bottom row. Before the advent of operator distance dialing and customer direct dial (DDD) calling, a switchboard operator would work with their counterparts in distant central office to complete

long-distance call In telecommunications, a long-distance call (U.S.) or trunk call (also known as a toll call in the UK ) is a telephone call made to a location outside a defined local calling area. Long-distance calls are typically charged a higher billing rate ...

s. Switchboard operators are typically required to have very strong communication skills. Before the advent of automatic exchanges, an operator's assistance was required for anything other than calling telephones across a shared party line. Callers spoke to an operator at a central office who then connected a cord to the proper circuit in order to complete the call. Being in complete control of the call, the operator was in a position to listen to private conversations. Automatic, or dial, systems were developed in the 1920s to reduce labor costs as usage increased, and to ensure privacy to the customer. As phone systems became more sophisticated, less direct intervention by the telephone operator was necessary to complete calls. With the development of computerized telephone dialing systems, many

telephone call A telephone call, phone call, voice call, or simply a call, is the effective use of a connection over a telephone network between the calling party and the called party. Telephone calls are the form of human communication that was first enabl ...

s which previously required live operators could be placed directly by calling parties without additional human intervention. As well as the people that were employed by the public networks, operators were required at private branch exchanges (PBX) to answer incoming calls and connect them to the correct

extensions Extension, extend or extended may refer to: Mathematics Logic or set theory * Axiom of extensionality * Extensible cardinal * Extension (model theory) * Extension (proof theory) * Extension (predicate logic), the set of tuples of values t ...

. Today, most large organizations have ''

direct inward dialing Direct inward dialing (DID), also called direct dial-in (DDI) in Europe and Oceania, is a telecommunication service offered by telephone companies to subscribers who operate private branch exchange (PBX) systems. The feature provides service for m ...

'', or ''direct dial-in''. Smaller workplaces may have an automated system which allows callers to enter the extension number of the called party, or a

receptionist A receptionist is an Employment, employee taking an office or Business administration, administrative support position. The work is usually performed in a waiting room, waiting area such as a Lobby (room), lobby or front office desk of an organ ...

who answers calls and performs operator duties. Depending on the employment setting, the roles and level of responsibilities of a PBX operator can vary greatly, from performing wake-up calls in a hotel to coordinating emergency responses, dispatching, and overhead paging in hospitals. Operators employed in healthcare settings may have other duties, such as

data entry Data entry is the process of digitizing data by entering it into a computer system for organization and management purposes. It is a person-based process and is "one of the important basic" tasks needed when no machine-readable version of the in ...

, greeting patients and visitors, taking messages, triaging, or performing after-hours answering service. Experienced, well-trained operators generally command higher salaries.

History

In January 1878 George Willard Croy became the world's first telephone operator when he started working for the Boston Telephone Dispatch company. A Telephone Operator

Emma Nutt became the first female telephone operator on 1 September 1878 when she started working for the Boston Telephone Dispatch company, because the attitude and behaviour of the teenage boys previously employed as operators was unacceptable. Emma was hired by

Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell (; born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born Canadian Americans, Canadian-American inventor, scientist, and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He als ...

and, reportedly, could remember every number in the telephone directory of the New England Telephone Company. More women began to replace men within this sector of the workforce for several reasons. The companies observed that women were generally more courteous to callers, and women's labor was cheap in comparison to men's. Specifically, women were paid from one half to one quarter of a man's salary. In the United States, any switchboard operator employed by any independently owned public telephone company with no more than seven hundred fifty stations were excluded from the

Equal Pay Act of 1963 The Equal Pay Act of 1963 is a United States labor law amending the Fair Labor Standards Act, aimed at abolishing wage disparity based on sex (see gender pay gap). It was signed into law on June 10, 1963, by John F. Kennedy as part of his New F ...

. Harriot Daley became the first telephone switchboard operator at the

United States Capitol The United States Capitol, often called the Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the Seat of government, seat of the United States Congress, the United States Congress, legislative branch of the Federal government of the United States, federal g ...

in 1898. Julia O'Connor, a former telephone operator, led the Telephone Operators' Strike of 1919 and the Telephone Operators' Strike of 1923 against New England Telephone Company on behalf of the IBEW Telephone Operators' Department for better wages and working conditions.Norwood,
Labor's Flaming Youth: Telephone Operators and Worker Militancy, 1878-1923
', pp. 262-291 In the 1919 strike, after five days, Postmaster General Burleson agreed to negotiate an agreement between the union and the telephone company, resulting in an increase in pay for the operators and recognition of the right to bargain collectively. However, the 1923 strike was called off after less than a month without achieving any of its goals. On October 11, 1983, in Bryant Pond, Maine, Susan Glines became the last switchboard operator for a hand-crank phone when that exchange was converted. Manual central office switchboards continued in operation at rural points like Kerman, California, and Wanaaring, New South Wales, as late as 1991, but these were central-battery systems with no hand-cranked magnetos. According to a 2024 study, the mechanization of switchboard operations harmed the economic outcomes of incumbent telephone operators, but did not harm the employment prospects of young women overall, as future cohorts of young women entered into other growing economic sectors.

Reality and fiction

Before the 1960s, the

telephone exchange A telephone exchange, telephone switch, or central office is a central component of a telecommunications system in the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or in large enterprises. It facilitates the establishment of communication circuits ...

with telephone switchboards and operators played a crucial role in connecting phone calls. A telephone switchboard is a device that allows telephone lines to be interconnected, enabling the routing of calls between different phones or phone networks. The switchboard operator was a person who manually connected calls by plugging and unplugging cords on the switchboard. The role of the switchboard and operator was important because they were responsible for connecting callers with the correct party and ensuring that calls were completed correctly. They also provided assistance with making long-distance calls, directory assistance, and other services related to the use of the telephone network. Dial phones were invented in the 1930s but took years to become standard. New Hampshire switched to dials town by town from 1950 to 1973. Switchboards and operators were an integral part of the telecommunications system until the introduction of electronic switching systems in the mid-20th century. Of the women who were hired in the late 1800s into the early 1900s, a majority of them were young, white women that lived with their parents. The average age range of switchboard operators was 16-24 years old. Many of the workers accepted a lower pay as they were contributing to an already established household. As the job of switchboard operators became more feminized, the managerial positions became more paternalistic and rigid. A requirement for employment was for managers to do house visits. This practice continued through the 1940s as a method of surveying the nature of people hired. Some managers even made it required for parental permission for young people to join the workforce. Dorothy M. Johnson, who later became a famous writer, started as a part-time relief operator at age 14 in

Whitefish, Montana Whitefish (Montana Salish, Salish: epɫx̣ʷy̓u, "has whitefish") is a city in Flathead County, Montana, United States. According to the 2020 United States census, there were 7,751 people in the city. History Archaeological records indicate th ...

, in the early 1920s. It was attractive opportunity for ambitious young women in a small logging town out West who needed money for college. The role demanded quick decision-making, meticulous attention to detail, a very good memory for names, and the ability to handle criticism. Switchboard technology was a physically demanding task, involving numerous plugs, keys, lights, connecting cords, and complicated protocols for establishing connections. The full-time operators were on duty 56 hours per week, and while they often grumbled about being overworked by a harsh boss, they were reasonably compensated at $50 a month. While many of the functions of the switchboard and operator have been automated, telephone operators still play a role in some contexts, such as in emergency services or customer support centers. Thus according to a 1995 study by Muller et al., the operators who provide directory assistance, "serve as experts in a variety of domains of relevance to their customers' lives, helping them to navigate through government agencies, complex business hierarchies, partially remembered geographies, and dynamic changes in their customers' worlds." The most famous group of American operators were in the "Women of the Signal Corps Female Telephone Operators Unit" of the

American Expeditionary Forces The American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) was a formation of the United States Armed Forces on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front during World War I, composed mostly of units from the United States Army, U.S. Army. The AEF was establis ...

in 1917–1919. They were bilingual female switchboard operators sent to France in the World War I. The 223 women were known informally as Hello Girls and were not formally recognized for their military service until 1978. In actuality, operators were rule-followers, but according to April Middeljans, in American drama, film, and magazines, they were often portrayed as rule-breaking rebels who challenged societal norms. Through disaster tales, detective stories, and romantic comedies, fiction writers suggest that operators were not just controlled by society, but rather played an active role in regulating it and shaping the lives of their clients and themselves. The female protagonists in these stories were motivated by their curiosity and empathy, and valued human connections over automated ones. By utilizing the switchboard's power, they aimed to achieve their own ideals of societal betterment. These stories reflect a deep admiration for strong female leads and a preference for human ingenuity and decision-making over machine efficiency.April Middeljans, " 'Weavers of Speech': Telephone Operators as Defiant Domestics in American Literature and Culture." ''Journal of Modern Literature,'' 33#3, (2010), pp. 38–63.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Business occupations Obsolete occupations

Description

History

Reality and fiction

See also

References

Further reading

External links