Work it, girl

"By 1879, Edison had opened London's first telephone-exchange in Lombard Street, and from the opening, this was staffed, as far as the less responsible work was concerned, by women, as was indeed, the (Government) Central Telegraph Office at St. Martin's-le-Grand. The telegram, the typewriter ["in its dimensions and apparent intricacy like something out of a spinning-mill"], the telephone -- these three, in chronological order, did more, in a practical way, for 'Women's Lib.' than ever the strident female would-be doctors, 'social workers,' 'divines' and printers, with their misdirected energy, and their topsy turvey sexuality could and did do."

This is from Michael Harrison's "The World of Sherlock Holmes" (1973, E.P. Dutton & Co.).

Quebec filmmaker Caroline Martel has just won a prize for her 2004 documentary, "Le Fantome de l'operatrice," a look at the role of the telephone in the creation of women's paid work. Operators -- in North America, at least -- were originally male, but women's voices, it was decided, worked better on the phone lines. Companies hired female high school grads with proper morals who passed a medical exam. Although it's unsaid, this was clearly intended to ensure that they weren't preggars.

The narration's a bit pompous, and the last 10 minutes drag, but this French-language film is a fascinating look back at one of the few jobs (outside of domestic work) that unmarried women were allowed in the early 1900s. (For those in Montreal, the movie is at Ex Centris until June 2; it's distributed by Productions Artifact).


ADDENDUM: Michael Harrison's so-so Holmes tome, which introduction gives an idea of the social and political surroundings of the world's first consulting detective, also includes in footnote the story of Emily Faithfull, a woman of the late 1800s whose name should live on in the fem'nist cannon: "Miss Emily Faithfull, an eminent do-gooder, established a printing shop completely staffed by females -- compositors, machine-minders, proof-readers... and the rest. This bold champion of Woman's Rights secured for herself the appointment of 'Printer-in-Ordinary to Her Majesty.'

"Fate was at its most cynical, one feels, in making this man-hating Amazon the victim of a singularly embarrassing encounter, of an 'intimate' nature, with the elderly Vice-Admiral Codrington, a hero... who, in his dotage, not only pressed his unsought attentions upon Miss Faithfull, but let the female printer see a proof -- of his virility -- over which she had hoped never to have to cast her eyes." Poor thing.