Did you know that back in the day when telephones came into existence, the operators were almost only female. Apparently the people who ran the companies thought women would be better for the job. It is interesting to note that the job of telegraph operator was only filled by men. It was the isolation factor of the job that made it a job for a man.
Here is the telephone bigwigs' possibly gender stereotyped logic:
- Women work well together. They are better in community settings. (Notice that this is completely the opposite of telegraph operators?)
- Women are easier to control. They were concerned with unionization.
- Women have more patience.
Women began to use the telephone in ways that were not prescribed by the Bell Telephone Co. Especially personal calls. They made these calls during all points in the day and that was only supposed to take place in the evening. Soon homes were equipped with two lines. One for the man's business use and one for the woman's increasingly social use.
There was also something called party lines. This is when a bunch of homes in the same area would share the same telephone line. This was like at your home. You pick up the phone only to find that your mom is on the phone already. Same concept. Party lines were used as a sort of modern day chat room by women. You would have Martha from up the road, Sarah from down the road, yourself, and other women you may not even know. This was a way for people to connect in rural settings and form community.
Nowadays, when you think about the phone which gender do you connect to it? Probably female. You probably imagine your little sister talking away for hours on the phone. Or your mom talking to your aunt. Do you associate the female gender with telephone usage? What do people think about the telephone? Do you like it especially? Was there a time when you liked it more (especially since telephone use seems to be waning with the younger generation). What is the difference between using Skype rather than an actual phone?
1. Robinson, Daniel J., ed. Communication History in Canada. Canada: Oxford University Press, 2004. (All info comes from this source, not just the quote)
...paraphrasing ST:DS9
ReplyDeleteAt some point the younger kid is asking one of his teachers why the intercom/announcement voices are always female, and his [female] teacher indicates that people in general find the female voice more pleasing and relaxing.
Not sure if something to that effect might have crossed the supervisors/organizers at Bell.
I thought for a moment that it also might have been something similarly organized but for less... appropriate, reasons, but then I can't really see a Bell CEO saying "lets hire only women to be operators because the men will find that more attractive/sexy/pleasing."
Now in terms of who I see in my mind's eye when I think of the phone in general? I think of way too many hours wasted sitting on the phone, myself, through high school :P and then I see myself working for Capital One's customer service department and the fairly equal ratio of sex of angry customers with no idea how credit works.
That being said, in general, I get better service from women in stores/on the phone than I do with men, geeenerally speaking. So I find that I'm happier when I call rogers and I get a woman on the other line. I found also that the women calling Capital One were more receptive to advice and help then the men, who geeenerally thought themselves adequately educated in terms of their finances.
I think the phone is a tricky thing, people used to say that being on the phone was too impersonal, but that stigma is now attached to chat rooms and msn [anyone actually *use* a chat room in the last five years?] Now that parents tell their kids to get off msn and go BE with their friends, some of that flak is off of the phones, but are they any more personal than before the instant messenger came along? I think skype and phones are along the same lines, just one without the cancer and long distance bills that plague us, but its all convenience. If you just have one little thing to pass on, do to walk 30 minutes and share, or do you call..? The path of least resistance ;) It will damn us all......
hmm interesting. I didn't think about the sound of the voice as being a factor in the reasoning.
ReplyDeleteAs for my skype vs. telephone question, I ask because I like the feeling of holding a phone. I think that holding the phone gives the feeling of greater connection- a relating to the tactility.