My sisters telegraphic : women in the telegraph office, 1846-1950 / Thomas C. Jepsen.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 217-222) and index.

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"In the mid-nineteenth century, women entered a challenging, competitive technological field - the telegraph industry. They competed directly with men, demanding and occasionally getting equal pay. Women telegraphers made up a subculture of technically educated workers whose skills, mobility, and independence set them apart from their contemporaries." "My Sisters Telegraphic is an accessible and fascinating study designed to fill in the missing history of women telegraph operators - their work, their daily lives, their workplace issue - by using nontraditional sources, including the telegraphers' trade journals, company records, and oral and written histories of the operators themselves. It includes an analysis of "telegraph romance," a largely forgotten genre of popular literature that grew up around the women operators and their work." "This study also explores the surprising parallels between the telegraphy of the nineteenth century and the work of women in technical fields today. The telegrapher's work, like that of the modern computer programmer, involved translating written language into machine-readable code. And anticipating the Internet by over one hundred years, telegraphers often experienced the gender-neutral aspect of the "cyberspace" they inhabited."--Jacket.

Women in the Telegraph Industry -- The Entry of Women into the Telegraph Industry in the United States -- Women Telegraphers in Canada and Europe -- Women and the Telegraph in the Non-European World -- Women in the Telegraph Industry in the Twentieth Century -- Daily Life in the Telegraph Office -- Life in the Depot Office -- Morse Keys and "Bugs" -- Life in the Commercial Office -- The Working Environment -- Working Hours -- Introduction of the Teletype -- Occupational Hazards -- Society and the Telegraph Operator -- Social Class -- Ethnicity -- Schooling -- Reasons for Entering the Workforce -- Demographic Composition of the Workforce -- Social Life -- Travel -- Religious, Social, and Civic Organizations -- Telegraphic Competitions -- Family and Marriage -- Women's Issues in the Telegraph Office -- The Entry of Women into Telegraphy in the United States and the Debate in the Telegrapher -- The Entry of Women into Telegraphy in Europe -- Women's Issues in the Telegraph Office in the United States in the 1870s -- Gendered Behavior in the Workplace -- Equal Pay -- Women as Business Entrepreneurs -- Office Politics: The Case of Lizzie Snow -- Sex and Morality in the Telegraph Office -- Women Telegraphers in Literature and Cinema -- Portrayal of Women Telegraphers in Literature -- Women Telegraphers in the Cinema -- Women Telegraphers and the Labor Movement -- The Telegraphers' Protective League and the Strike of 1870 -- Women and the Labor Movement in Europe -- The Brotherhood of Telegraphers and the Strike of 1883.

English.

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