RACE AND TECHNOLOGY: AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN IN THE BELL SYSTEM, 1945-1980. |
| Author: |
Green, Venus.
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| Date |
1/1/95
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| Type |
Journal
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| Journal Title: |
Technology and Culture
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| Volume/Pages |
36
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| Subject Matter |
Social/Public Policy and Administration
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| Abstract |
Analyzes how technological displacement affected African-American women s employment possibilities in the post-World War II telephone industry, and discusses the hypothesis that race becomes the overriding variable in determiningpolicy when it converges with gender in the workplace. During the mid-1960 s, the Bell System replaced cord switchboards with Traffic Service Position Systems (TSP), computerized equipment. This change reduced the need forswitchboard operators, who were mostly white women. The Bell System hired African-American women at lower wages to work as deskilled adjuncts to TSP after white laborers refused to work for lower wages.
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