switchboard operators Archives - Marketplace

AI lessons from the telephone operators of the 1920s

by Kai Ryssdal and Livi Burdette

Aug 17, 2023

In the early 20th century, thousands of young women worked as telephone switchboard operators. Automation changed that.

If you were a working woman in the early 20th century, there's a good chance you were a telephone operator — until mechanical switching took over the job.

-/AFP via Getty Images

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