Feminisation of the Labour Process in the Communication Industry

This article uses concepts coming from studies of the feminization of different occupations to investigate how the occupation of telephone operator came to be a female job ghetto. Its main theme is that the feminization of operating was central to the rapid growth of the telephone industry in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Contrary to general findings in the literature on feminization, the study suggests that labelling the operator's occupation as a female job increased, rather than reduced, its social status, although it did not improve its wages. It also indicates that whereas the job definition changed to suit female characteristics, its actual performance continued to involve commonly recognised male features to which the female operators had to adapt. Resume Cet article analyse, a l'aide de concepts extraits d'etudes sur la feminisation de divers emplois, le proces par lequel l'occupation de telephoniste fut transformee en un guetto feminin. Le theme central de la problematique est que la feminisation de l'operation du telephone etait essentielle â le croissance rapide de l'industrie du telephone â la fin du dix-neuvieme et au debut du vingtieme siecle. Contrairement aux conclusions resultant de la litterature sur la feminisation, cette etude avance que le fait d'avoir etiquette le travail de telephoniste comme feminin a ameliore, plutot que deteriore, son statut social, malgre le fait que les gages de la travailleuse n'aient pas augmentees. L'etude souligne egalement que, en depit de ce renversement de definition de l'emploi, le travail garda des characteristiques communement reconnues comme masculines auxquelles les femmes telephonistes durent s'adapter

Business · Operations management · Process (computing · Telecommunications · Computer Science · Engineering · Labor Movements and Unions

• Historiography

  Andrée Lévesque•Quebec Studies•1991

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