Fleet-Fingered Typist
In 1923, on the 50th anniversary of the typewriter, New York Times Magazine heralded the frequency of female typists in the workforce: "Truly, the key to the modern world for woman has been the typewriter key."
The writer Mary Badger Wilson elaborated:
Fifty years ago the business world was inhabited almost entirely by men. Then a strange new writing machine began to appear in office after office. Operators were needed to run these machines, and women, with their quick hands and their low wage demands, were found to make good, cheap operators. In small numbers at first they began sifting into the business life of the country, and thus started the great feminine invasion of the economic world. The courage of Susan B. Anthony, considered pragmatically, was a smaller factor in putting over feminism than the standard keyboard.
While the article didn't appear to cite any concrete numbers, an 1891 article in Cincinnati's The Phonographic Magazine said women comprised 75% of professional typists at the time. Three decades later, the 1910 U.S. Census found a similar number, with women comprising 77% of professional typists.
Today, the figure is even more skewed. As of 2022, the U.S. employed about 2 thousand male typists versus about 31 thousand women — or about 94% female.
Fleet-Fingered Typist
Published: Sunday, December 2, 1923