{"product_id":"race-on-the-line-gender-labor-and-technology-in-the-bell-system-1880-1980-9780822325734","title":"Race on the Line: Gender, Labor, and Technology in the Bell System, 1880-1980","description":"\u003ci\u003eRace on the Line\u003c\/i\u003e is the first book to address the convergence of race, gender, and technology in the telephone industry. Venus Green--a former Bell System employee and current labor historian--presents a hundred year history of telephone operators and their work processes, from the invention of the telephone in 1876 to the period immediately before the break-up of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1984. Green shows how, as technology changed from a manual process to a computerized one, sexual and racial stereotypes enabled management to manipulate both the workers and the workplace.\u003cbr\u003eMore than a simple story of the impact of technology, \u003ci\u003eRace on the Line\u003c\/i\u003e combines oral history, personal experience, and archival research to weave a complicated history of how skill is constructed and how its meanings change within a rapidly expanding industry. Green discusses how women faced an environment where male union leaders displayed economic as well as gender biases and where racism served as a persistent system of division. Separated into chronological sections, the study moves from the early years when the Bell company gave both male and female workers opportunities to advance; to the era of the \"white lady\" image of the company, when African American women were excluded from the industry and feminist working-class consciousness among white women was consequently inhibited; to the computer era, a time when black women had waged a successful struggle to integrate the telephone operating system but faced technological displacement and unrewarding work. \u003cbr\u003eAn important study of working-class American women during the twentieth century, this book will appeal to a wide audience, particularly students and scholars with interest in women's history, labor history, African American history, the history of technology, and business history.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Venus Green\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Duke University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 05\/02\/2001\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 392\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.15lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.80d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780822325734\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 10\/01\/2001 pg. 353\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eVenus Green is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the City College of New York. From 1974-1990, she was employed by New York Telephone Company as a switching equipment technician.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Duke University Press","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":40801562132595,"sku":"9.78082E+12","price":53.68,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0555\/9255\/0515\/products\/img_1344c4d6-cad5-40a6-85ec-34a331119bfb.jpg?v=1682426381","url":"https:\/\/bookstorenmore.com\/products\/race-on-the-line-gender-labor-and-technology-in-the-bell-system-1880-1980-9780822325734","provider":"Bookstore N More","version":"1.0","type":"link"}