American work culture has come a long way since the gender-exclusionary days of the 1960s and 1970s. And while we still have work ahead of us to ensure equal treatment of both men and women in the workplace, there was once a time, not very long ago, when certain jobs were practically “off limits” to women. Positions of power in fields of medicine, law, and business, for example, were often reserved for men, while supportive roles like nurses, secretaries, and clerks were held for women. We explore 18 “pink-collar” jobs that were almost exclusively held by women in the ’60s and ’70s before the glass ceiling shattered and women began to hold their own in the professional arena!
#1: Switchboard Operator
Before automated phone systems, switchboard operators were there to manually connect calls by plugging wires into a huge board. Women almost exclusively held this role, tasked with the expectation to be polite, efficient, and virtually unflappable. By the 1980s, advancements in telecommunications rendered this job practically obsolete.
