Women may be at greater risk of AI job losses. Telephone switch operators and PCs show why.

Decades before Siri or Alexa or ChatGPT, there was a real person, almost always a woman, at the center of the information world. She was so vital, most long-distance communication could not happen without her. She was the telephone switch operator, and at one time she was part of the single largest occupation for white, U.S.-born women under age 20. The world is struggling to figure out what the dawn of artificial intelligence means for society, culture and the economy. A lot of ordinary Americans are just wondering what it means for their jobs. The history of technological progress — from automated telephone switches to the introduction of the washing machine and the personal computer — can offer some guidance.