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Emma Nutt (July 1860 – 1915) [2] became the world's first female telephone operator on September 1, 1878, when she started working for the Edwin Holmes Telephone Despatch Company [3] (or the Boston Telephone Dispatch Company [4]) in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Hello Girls was the colloquial name for American female switchboard operators in World War I, formally known as the Signal Corps Female Telephone Operators Unit. During World War I, these switchboard operators were sworn into the U.S. Army Signal Corps. [1] Until 1977 they were officially categorized as civilian "contract employees" of the US Army.
She was one of the first women to join the United States Signal Corps, where her fluent French skills were in demand during World War I. [4] In January 1918, she became Chief Operator, Second American Unit of Telephone Operators, in charge of hundreds of American women who worked as interpreters in war-related telephone communications. [5]
United States phone operator in 1911. 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. [4]
Boys had been very successful as telegraphy operators, but their attitude, lack of patience, and behavior was unacceptable for live telephone contact, [2] so the company began hiring women operators instead. Thus, on September 1, 1878, Boston Telephone Dispatch hired Emma Nutt as the first woman operator. Small towns typically had the ...
“On account of the great difficulty of obtaining properly qualified men, request organization and dispatch to France of force of woman telephone operators all speaking French and English equally ...
As phone lines became more popular—between 1942 and 1962, the number of phones in the U.S. grew 230% to 76 million—telephone companies realized they would run out of phone numbers.
Many women telegraph operators were strong supporters of women's rights, including suffrage and equal pay for equal work. Sarah Bagley became a telegraph operator in 1846 after forming the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association to support better working conditions for the women who worked in the textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts.