8) Switchboard Operator

During the early years of popular telephony switchboard operators were employed across the country. The first to fill this role was one George Willard Croy in 1878.

These switchboard operators (normally women) manually connected callers to their destination by plugging and unplugging connectors. There were a couple of reasons why women were generally selected for this type of work; one, they were more courteous on the phone and two, they were cheap.