ABSTRACT
The telephone has been presumed to have been a blessing and a liberator for women. Early commentary on the telephone, repeated by contemporary authors, extolled the virtue of the telephone in reducing women’s loneliness and isolation and freeing their time from unnecessary travel. John Brooks (1976), for example, claims that by the end of the 1880s, ‘telephones were beginning to save the sanity of remote farm wives by lessening their sense of isolation’ and ‘they were beginning to bring women in cities “out of the kitchen” by reducing the time required for shopping’ (94). Sidney Aronson (1971) states, ‘Since farmers’ wives were especially susceptible to feelings of loneliness and isolation, the telephone here too helped to allay personal anxiety’ (278).1 Ithiel de Sola Pool (1983) notes that the telephone’s role in reducing isolation and insecurity was thought to be particularly relevant to women (131).
