Decisions about automation

• Economics of networks

• Strategies of the telephone companies

• Evolving switchboard hardware

• Culture of the workers

Automatic switching

• Strowger switch 1891– Adopted by non-Bell companies; “girl-less telephone”

• Bell System resistance– Improvements in manual switching– Scientific management– Uncertainty of new technology– Corporate culture

• It wasn’t just about money--automation would reduce switch expenses by $5-$8 per line

Decision to automate

• System growth—200 exchanges in NY City alone—eroded switching efficiency

• Labor issues—jump in government demand for female clerks during WWI– “Having defined the job as women’s work, the

corporation did not believe it would be appealing to men, and it refused to recruit from the lower end of the socioeconomic scale.”

» Kenneth Lipartito, “When Women Were Switches”

An example of social shaping

• “. . . .technology does not dictate one and only one outcome . . . Numerous interests intersect in the construction of large technical systems. Changes in technology have multiple causes. . . . An examination of the systematic interrelationships between business strategies, technical artifacts, and worker culture illuminates the process of technical innovation.” --Kenneth Lipartito

AT&T and the EEOC

• EEOC asked for FCC investigation– 1971 FCC found there had been discrimination

– AT&T signed consent decree with EEOC, DOJ, and Dept of Labor, approved in 1973

• Six years to hire, transfer, and promote targeted number of women and minorities in to higher paying management and craft jobs and to place men in some of the female dominated jobs

Results from 1973 to 1979

• Officials and managers (including secretaries)– Women went from 24.5% to 29.1%

• Outside craft– Women went from 0.7% to 4.7%

• Inside craft– Women went from 10.7% to 17.9%

Did it really work?

• Deskilling and elimination of the jobs opened to women—eliminated more jobs for women than the EEOC decree created– Example of the mechanized loop testers

• Entrance of men into formerly female positions—became entry level stepping stone jobs that men were quickly promoted out of

• End of any privileges for women regarding rest breaks and lounges for women, or earlier retirement ages for women, or lower weightlifting requirements

A few more current statistics• Telephone line installers and repairers:

– 1983, women 5.6% of workforce (59,000)– 1988, women 10% of workforce (61,000)

• Telephone installers and repairers:– 1983, women 9.9% of workforce (247,000)– 1988, women 12.1% of workforce (202,000)

Modern situation

• Continued downsizing and deskilling and automating of all jobs in the telephone industry.

• Competition exerts downward pressure on costs—more companies, more pressure to be efficient

• Deregulation leading to a shift in jobs.