“In order to become a department head I had to wait until one particular troglodyte who opposed the promotion of women was out of the way and could no longer block my path.”

Photo by Peter Adams.

Capitola Dickerson was one of the first Black women to work at Bell Laboratories. As a graduate from the prestigious Juilliard School, her passion for music led her to teach, inspiring many students to become working musicians. Her work with the community touched many organizations and people, earning her a Key to the City of Summit in 2011, presented by the Mayor.

Image Courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center.

Tips for how to impress your employer, from Hildegarde Fillmore, beauty lecturer and editor, in the November issue of The Blue Bell. “About your voice...Do you yourself speak shrilly when you are a little excited? Your way of smiling is the second magic key to success. It’s truly amazing to me to see how far a pleasant smile can take a girl in business…I’ve known competent women to stay in poor jobs because they had some sloppy personal habit...a messy way of fixing their hair or a slip that always showed for example”

After an academic career as geology professor at Bryn Mawr and research assistant at Columbia University, Betty Wood started as a crystallographer at Bell Laboratories in 1942—making her their first female scientist. Her work contributed to advancements in semiconductors and lasers. In 1957 she became the first female president of the American Crystallographic Association. She penned several science books for general audiences, including Rewarding Careers for Women in Physics (1962).

Image Courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center. 

Regarding recruiting female high school graduates, “The Personnel Department...will welcome any help...in the way of referring candidates for clerical and messenger jobs to Mrs. Hinrich’s in Women’s Employment...If you know any young men, just graduated from high school and possible candidates for work at the Laboratories, please refer them to Mr. Baum in Men’s Employment.”

Erna Schneider Hoover received a Ph.D from Yale University, where she also met her husband. Both were hired at Bell Laboratories in the mid1950s, but Erna was brought on at a level below her qualifications. She negotiated for better terms upon returning from maternity leave, breaking a glass ceiling as a female department head, and dove into the massive No. 1 Electronic Switching Station project (find more detail in the hall). She was also awarded one of the first software patents ever issued, for an idea she mulled over while recuperating in the maternity ward after the birth of her second child.

Image Courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center. 

From feature on “Women in the Labs,” “..There was an opening as a tool crib attendant, for a girl to whom the drills, clamps, cutters and vises in the Development Shop tool room would not be entirely unfamiliar. Now Mary helps to run the tool room…”

Vaughn, twenty-five years old in this photo, started college at age fifteen studying mechanical engineering. She needed special permission to wear slacks so that she could scale the equipment. Mary Jo worked at the Los Alamos Z Division, part of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s reorganization of the lab after work on the Manhattan Project ended. The Z Division branched off from Los Alamos to become Sandia. Vaughn became the first female Sandia wind tunnel engineer testing aerodynamics.

Featured in an issue of Mademoiselle Magazine.

Image Courtesy of Sandia National Laboratories

“Vivian Hoppe, the tiniest miss in the Development Shop, finds no difficulty in running a bench lathe…”

Shirley Ann Jackson was hired at the Murray Hill labs in 1976 to conduct physics research. She went on to invent Caller ID and Call Waiting. Jackson is now president of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the oldest technological research university in the US. She also served as Chairman of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, appointed by President Bill Clinton.

Image Courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center. 

Alvina Mand Retires, who started as a stenographer in 1910 “We girls had a part in the construction of the teletypewriter, radio telephony, ship-to-shore telephone, television and in all the great projects of the Bell System.”

Bell Telephone Labs had plenty of sporting and social groups for employees, both men and women, to join. Employees could find a group for any number of interests, such as bowling, sewing, music, hiking, basketball, Doll and Toy Committee (who gave gifts to those in need).

Image Courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center.