Artificial intelligence (AI) is raising concerns about job losses, particularly in roles involving routine administrative and clerical work. History offers a useful perspective: from automated telephone exchanges to personal computers, technological change has repeatedly displaced women from established occupations while opening up new opportunities elsewhere.

The outcome, however, has not always been straightforward. While younger workers have often adapted to changing labour markets, those already established in jobs made obsolete by technology have faced greater difficulties.

Telephone operators were once central to the communication system in the United States. By the 1940s, women accounted for nearly 95% of the country’s telephone operators. The job required extensive training, speed and accuracy, and offered relatively good pay for women at the time.

The introduction of automatic telephone exchanges changed that. As the technology spread, an estimated 75,000 operator jobs disappeared.

Research by economists James Feigenbaum and Daniel P. Gross found that many experienced operators struggled to recover. Some moved into lower-paying jobs, while others left the workforce altogether.

The impact was particularly severe because workers do not necessarily have an equally good alternative when their occupation disappears. As economist David Autor has argued, people often build careers around a particular line of work, making technological disruption difficult to navigate.

Younger women, however, tended to fare better, finding jobs of comparable quality in other fields. The distinction highlights an important lesson for the AI era: the consequences of automation can vary considerably depending on a worker’s age, experience and ability to move into a different occupation.

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