Weaving and Unweaving the Rights of Public Woman: The Case of Telephone Operators at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

Despite recent attempts to frame women as leaders and decision makers, prejudices against women who gain access to positions of authority have not gone away (Eicher-Catt and Sutton 2009; Goldenberg 2007; Han and Heldman 2007; Valian 2000; van Zoonen 2006). On its Web site, The White House Project (2001, 2002, 2005) indicates these prejudices seem stubbornly resistant to change. This chapter concentrates historically on a part of the problem that has not gone away in the United States. Even as women increase their visibility and gain access to positions of authority in the public realm, they are subject to sexual innuendo. According to Kenneth Cmiel, “Residues of ancient taboos persist [in the twenty-fi rst century] far beyond any ‘offi cial’ end to barriers [in the nineteenth century] against women speaking in public” (1990, 71).