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Hawaiian Telcom service

The date was March of 1880, only four years after the 100th centenniel demonstration and the American Bell Telephone Company was in control of all the telephones in the country, which numbered over 60,000. Telephones were connected in every city with a population over 10,000.

Operators could handle hundreds of calls because of the technology improvement in just a few short years. In the beginning, operators were male, but they had earned a reputation for being rude and abusive. Telephone exchanges were chaotic because the operators had to run from one board to the next to answer calls. Along with running from board to board, the boys had wrestling matches, launched spit wads, snapped rubber bands and even hurled a few curse words Hawaiian Telcom service .

Since technology was so primitive, there was a lot of noisy crackling in the systems. Since there was so much chaos, an operator was needed that could convey a sense of calm to the subscriber. This job was not suited for the young boys.

It was not long before the young men were replaced by young women who did not swear, launch spit wads or wrestle between calls. Another benefit was that the girls were faster than the boys they replaced. After being confined to the home or the schoolhouse, American women soon came to control the switchboards of the country. In the 19th century, women were expected to be more docile than men and to follow the rules more closely.

The job of the early telephone operator was not easy. These women were expected to work twelve hour shifts and take hundreds of calls each hour. They also followed strict guidelines when it came to dress and behavior. There were many rules to follow and they were expected to stay quiet between calls and not to look around. At that time in our history, women had fewer options than men and were more or less left with the strict circumstances surrounding this job.

"A high-class service in an operating room is the fruit of good discipline." The selection of girls for operators is the first important step. Great care should be taken to know positively if they are of good character. The training of the voice to become soft, melodious and to carry well is the most difficult lesson an operator has to learn." These are some of the first lessons an operator would learn. A customer could say anything to the operator and all she could say back was "thank you" Hawaiian Telcom service .

In addition, the operators were not allowed to cross their legs. She could not even blow her nose without permission. If she got married, often she was fired. Even thought operators were saddled with such oppressive rules, by 1910 there were over six thousand women working as operators in New York alone.

It could be that if there had not been a technological revolution that made the switchboard operation simpler, the demand for operators would have gone up so dramatically, that virtually every woman in the country would have been employed as an operator by the middle of the twentieth century. Thank goodness for the advancement of the telecommunications industry.