To assuage public concern, Baker permitted women to be hired only when men were unavailable. Barracks for women began to be built in October. Although the War Department declared that no women should be employed, except nurses attached to hospitals, the Signal Corps and AT&T convinced Secretary of War Newton Baker that the highly trained, experienced women operators were essential. In September 1917, as male recruits were being shipped to France, the commanders of various Army camps in the continental United States began asking for permission to build facilities to house women telephone operators to maintain their communications. Another source referenced gifts that the 'hello girls' received at Christmas-time from local businesses in Flint. Published references to 'hello girls' predating World War I include the following sentence from Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court written in 1889: 'The humblest hello-girl along ten thousand miles of wire could teach gentleness, patience, modesty, manners, to the highest duchess in Arthur's land'. Rather, the term was first coined for female telephone switchboard operators in the US, and was the common term used for women who would greet callers with 'hello' when they rang the switchboard instead of dialing another telephone number directly. Meade in Maryland.Īlthough the term 'hello girls' may have been applied to the signaling corps, it did not originate there. They completed their Signal Corps training at Camp Franklin, now a part of Fort George G. Many of these women were former switchboard operators or employees at telecommunications companies.

Over 7,000 women applied, but only 223 women were accepted. Applicants had to be bilingual in English and French to ensure that orders would be heard by anyone. Pershing to improve the worsening state of communications on the Western front. This corps were formed in 1917 from a call by General John J. Until 1977 they were officially categorized as civilian 'contract employees' of the US Army. During World War I, these switchboard operators were sworn into the U.S.

Hello Girls was the colloquial name for American female switchboard operators in World War I, formally known as the Signal Corps Female Telephone Operators Unit. Hello Girls operating switchboards in Chaumont, France during WWI

Wartime Girls by Anne Baker