forthcoming from Union Square

The voices of female telephone operators soothed the anxieties of the modern age, domesticating the uncanny technology that shuttled sound across wire. More than simply connecting phone calls, operators charmed infatuated suitors, informed curious residents, and even saved countless lives ahead of incoming floods and fires. For nearly a century, these women were invaluable cogs in the Bell Telephone System’s mission for industrial growth, expansion, wealth, and efficiency—until their positions were replaced by automation. Soon enough, roles requiring operator assistance were seen as low-skill labor while the best jobs, maintaining the new automated dial equipment, were reserved for men. Until, that is, Lorena Weeks, a courageous former telephone operator in rural Georgia, applied for a “switchman” job in 1965.

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Bellwether will be the first narrative history of telephone operators and the overlooked role they played in the second-wave feminist movement, blazing the trail for working women in the United States. The narrative spotlights Lorena Weeks’ work as a telephone operator, her unsuccessful bid for a switchman position, her challenge through the freshly inked Civil Rights Act of 1964, and her initial defeat in district court. Her refusal to back down in the face of overwhelming odds eventually led to a dramatic landmark ruling that busted open the door to blue-collar jobs for women in America. No one had ever successfully argued a sex discrimination case based on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, and the ruling marked a significant—but seldom heralded—victory of second-wave feminism. Lorena's case paved the way for a larger suit that benefited more than 30,000 women telephone workers and catalyzed equal opportunity employment in workplaces nationwide.