🪖This Veterans Day: Honoring The Hello Girls —Switchboard Soldiers of World War I

Take Action to Recognize The Signal Corps with “The Hello Girls” Author Elizabeth Cobbs

Nov 11, 2022

📷: The Hello Girls, courtesy of Carolyn Timbie

When I started The Switchboard, I thought I knew the history of the Operators who connected telephone calls. It turns out, I actually didn’t know the full story until recently — a group of women, who made a monumental impact on the profession, were missing from history.

During World War I, 223 women Switchboard Operators bravely served the US Army in France, changing the course of history as they connected telephone calls for General Pershing and other army leaders. The swift communication of information by these bi-lingual (French and English speaking) “Switchboard Soldiers” made the difference between winning and losing battles. But, they were never recognized for their service as Veterans until nearly 60 years later.

Their brave story is told by Professor Elizabeth Cobbs in her book, “The Hello Girls.” It seems fitting that today — Veterans Day and Armistice Day — I share their stories. In 1918, on the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" the fighting of the Great War — World War I — ended. It took until 1977 for America's First Women Soldiers to gain official recognition and in 2017, Elizabeth Cobbs brought their story to everyone’s attention.

📷: Hello Girls recruitment poster, courtesy of Carolyn Timbie

In this series of articles, I’ll share my journey of discovering the powerful story of the Signal Corps Telephone Operators and the women who champion them:

Elizabeth Cobbs, Historian, Professor and Author of “The Hello Girls”
Claudia Friddell, Children’s book author of “Grace Banker and Her Hello Girls Answer the Call”
Carolyn Timbie*, Granddaughter of Grace Banker

But, one part of their story is still outstanding — a nonpartisan bill to recognize their service — S. 692: Hello Girls Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2021 will expire at the end of this year. This prestigious award is “bestowed by the United States Congress … [as the] highest expression of national appreciation for distinguished achievements and contributions by individuals or institutions.”

✏️ If you’d like to be part of making history for the field of communications, you can write your Senator or Representative to ask them to sign on as a sponsor — only a few more signatures are needed.

📝 Here’s more information, a list of Senators who’ve already signed on and a template email is here and below via PDF  — feel free to download and personalize it. Thanks to Claudia Friddell’s sister-in-law for drafting this resource.

Template Letter For Hello Girls Congressional Gold Medal Act

48.8KB ∙ PDF file

Download

How I Discovered This Story

A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon the inspiring documentary with the same title as Elizabeth Cobbs’ book — “The Hello Girls.” After watching the film, directed by James William Theres — an award-winning Executive Writer for the Department of Veterans Affairs — I was inspired by this story. After all, the Switchboard Operators are my muse for this newsletter. But, I needed to know about this part of the story that was missing from history.

The next day, I reached out to Elizabeth to learn more. On our call together, she took me on a historical treasure hunt where I had a front-row seat to learn about her passion for foreign relations, commitment to women’s rights and her journey of writing this important story so that it is no longer forgotten. Learn more about Elizabeth and read our interview below.

About Elizabeth

Award-winning historian Elizabeth Cobbs brings fresh, unexpected perspectives to our understanding of the past and present. Building upon worldwide research and extraordinary life experiences, Elizabeth writes best-selling fiction and non-fiction that is both scholarly and witty. Her path-breaking books, articles, and documentary films reveal a world that is as intriguing and surprising as it is real.

Elizabeth earned her Ph.D. in American history at Stanford University. She now holds the Melbern Glasscock Chair at Texas A&M University. Her books have won four literary prizes, two for American history and two for fiction, and she has won four prizes for documentary filmmaking. Elizabeth has been a Fulbright scholar in Ireland and a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. She has served on the Historical Advisory Committee of the U.S. State Department and on the jury for the Pulitzer Prize in History.

What sparked your interest to research this topic?

It was on the eve of the 100th anniversary of World War I when I began researching what I could write for the Centennial. I wanted to write about a topic that hadn’t been published. As a historian, my specialty is US Foreign Relations, but I stumbled upon this women’s story as I was researching the Great War. One of the daughters of these World War I Switchboard Operators had a website up about her mother who was one of the Hello Girls! Sadly, it’s no longer online.

It became clear that this was such a turning point for women that preceded women getting the right to vote — women’s suffrage was an outcome of World War I. When I started studying this topic, a historian friend asked if I was certain there was enough to write a whole book. It was that and more — a documentary, an off-Broadway musical, and so many wonderful moments!

Looking back, I was involved in the Women’s Liberation Movement in the early 1970s and ran a newspaper as well as social service programs. Then, I left that path to go to Graduate school. I believe activism should be separate from scholarly research. Nearly 35 years later, it was really with The Hello Girls that I came full circle with my passions — it was such a great story that I couldn’t help myself.

Why were women selected as Switchboard Operators in World War I?

At the time, women were entering the labor force in a variety of roles. The Switchboard was one of those few opportunities open to them. Women were very adept at this job. To this day, no one knows exactly what made them great at it, but they were able to multi-task and were very efficient.

While it took the average “Doughboy” — a male soldier — 50-60 seconds to connect a call — it took a woman 10 seconds! In wartime, that could mean the difference between life and death. This highlighted the importance of women's contributions to the war effort.

Of all the stories you researched for the book, is there one “Hello Girl” who really stood out to you and why?

📷 Hello Girl, Grace Banker, courtesy of Carolyn Timbie

There were so many incredible women, but if I had to pick one, there was the leader from the first contingent of these Switchboard Operators — her name was Grace Banker. She stood out from the other women because she was a college graduate of Barnard College. This was very unusual because, at that time, it wasn't even common for women to graduate high school — something like 8% of Americans were high-school graduates. Grace was part of a generation of women taking on new roles.

She volunteered to be a Switchboard Operator. As more women became Operators, they needed an Officer to oversee them. Her college education made her that top choice. She stepped up quickly to be their leader.

While researching this book, I got to know her granddaughter, Carolyn Timbie, who discovered Grace’s story along with me. She got to know the impact that Grace made through family mementos — Grace’s diary in particular. It was a treasure trove for me to read through it and discover this story and share it with her family!

In 1919, Grace Banker received the Distinguished Service Medal, one of the Army’s highest honors. But, she, along with the other Hello Girls, were never given a military rank. When I had a book launch event at the Military Women's Memorial at Arlington Cemetery, many women officers with rank today came out to honor The Hello Girls. It was such a full circle moment where these women leaders of today can trace their rank to the Switchboard Operators from World War I.

📷: Grace Banker Distinguished Service Medal, courtesy of Carolyn Timbie

Can you tell us more about what happened when the Hello Girls returned from the War?

They went on with life as usual. Most of them got married and didn’t think much about their experience. The Navy also had women serve — nearly 11,000 women and they were actually recognized, inducted as sailors, given rank and Veterans benefits. But the Army, which had deployed 223 women, could not be bothered.

There were a handful of these women who said this wasn’t right. In the 1930s, they began to speak up and wrote to the President — first FDR, then Truman, then Eisenhower, then Kennedy, and Carter eventually signed the order to recognize the few remaining women with benefits in 1977. Sometimes it takes a handful of women to change the world. These women did it.

What was your experience researching this book?

As a historian, sometimes sources are already in boxes or libraries. In this case, I actually had to go find them in people’s garages. When I was searching for more materials, I ended up FaceTiming with Carolyn, Grace Banker’s granddaughter who opened up a green trunk that was stamped “Grace Banker, US Signal Corps.” Inside, it had her gas mask, trench helmet and letters — those are now at the World War I Museum in Kansas City.

The other collections I stumbled upon were by finding people. I called the Seattle Bar Association to find Mark Hough, who was a lawyer in Seattle and worked with Merle Egan Anderson, the Hello Girl who led their legislative battle. Through that conversation, I found another diary with a 40-year-old phone number and called it. It turned out that person was the nephew of Louise LeBreton, another one of the Hello Girls.

What role did these women have in shaping the future of women's rights in America?

The Hello Girls were part of a sea change when women were doing great things that were very public. When Grace Banker won the Distinguished Service Medal, it was reported on across the country in newspapers. It was at the time when the right to vote for women was being voted on again after being denied for decades by Congress.

But, the debates begin to shift — it was very hard to argue against the vote because of the role women played in the Great War. Even President Woodrow Wilson said, “women have served on the very skirts of the battle.” It’s fascinating that he used such a gendered description. These women were exposed to real hazards and dangers, risking their lives at the edge of battles — in their long skirts. For the Hello Girls those were the battlegrounds of France!

They were part of the conversation that shifted the context. Twenty other countries gave women the right to vote before the United States, and they all did within the context of the war. Britain, Germany, Russia and Austria gave women the vote so, in the United States, it became hard not to give women the right after this moment.

What lessons can we take from these women and apply to modern day?

It’s the determined yet quiet way of standing up for what you think is right that these women embodied. They recognized that they had wonderful allies among the men who cared about their service to the nation. Their notion of persistence and working with people is so different than today as we tend to be very moralistic and judgmental — if someone has different beliefs than us, we think we can’t cooperate with them. That’s not how The Hello Girls operated! They were willing to rise above personal discomfort to follow what they thought was the right course of action. Those are wonderful traits to have.

They were real people — some of them lied about their ages to get in, they had a great time when they weren’t working and had a marvelous sense of humor, which was needed when things got bad. It was tough — they saw a lot of death. But they got through it together as friends — that was the best part — it was a model for men and women to have professional relationships collaborating as equals in a challenging environment.

📕 To learn more about this topic, check out “The Hello Girls” — it’s a riveting read. This series will continue with features on Claudia Friddell’s children’s book story and Carolyn Timbie’s family story. * Thank you to Elizabeth for introducing me to Carolyn, Granddaughter of Grace Banker. These are her photos from the family’s private collection that are included in this article.

Once again, here’s the information about how you can help recognize the service of the Switchboard Soldiers with S. 692: Hello Girls Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2021.

Write to Recognize The Hello Girls

Thank you for reading The Switchboard. ☎️ Every edition is personally curated by me — Julia Levy. Learn more about why I write. Review the Index of past posts.

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