Angielska wersja wystawy/English version of the exhibition
1. Hello, girls! – women in the Ericsson company at the turn of the 20th c.
The role of women in the process of social transformation is more than important. Yet we often forget about the courage and feistiness of the ladies who decided to have a professional career at the beginning of the 20th c. It was in 1918 that women in Poland received their civil rights which, among other things, let them seek employment. The manner in which these rights were enjoyed, however, had to be adapted to the tradition of the times – Ericsson’s female telephone operators were indeed pioneers in this area. During the interwar period, Warsaw’s telephone exchanges operated by Ericsson employed several hundred women. The new profession of telephone operators gave women prestige, social advancement and financial independence. The talented “maidens from the tower” as they were called then, became an important part of interwar Warsaw. The present technology and cable or wireless networks is seen as something completely ordinary today – they were introduced also thanks to the work of women.
The exhibition presents a part of this extraordinary and forgotten history. It was created on the occasion of the centenary of diplomatic relations between Sweden and Poland.
We are grateful to the Ericsson company in Poland for its organisation.
The texts are based on the publication “Ericsson – 100 years in Poland”.
The photographs of pre-war Warsaw used in the background come from the collection of the National Digital Archive.
The hall of the telephone operators under construction.
Photographs from the collection of Föreningen Stockholms Företagsminnen/Center for Business History, Stockholm
Interior of a Warsaw café. The telephone became an element of the everyday life of Varsovians and also served a pleasant social function. Telephone dates were arranged only in the presence of a chaperon. The 1920s.
2. Warsaw on line
L.M. Ericsson & Co. was established in 1876 in Stockholm
At the beginning of the 20th century, Ericsson and an operator company under the name of Cedergren entered the Polish market. The official take-over of the Warsaw network by the Swedish Cedergren Society, which later became part of Ericsson, took place on 15 November 1900.
The company promised to modernise and rebuild the telephone grid within three years. With the help of innovative technologies, the rather unbecoming telephone cables were placed underground. Thanks to this solution, which was also used in the water and sewage system and the electric cable car network, Warsaw found itself at a new level of technological development.
The laying of underground cables in the Saski Garden, Warsaw, January 1902.
From the collection of Föreningen Stocksholms Företagsminnen/Center for Business History, Stockholm.
Telephone operator Lucyna Święcka.
Warsaw, 1920s.
From the private collection of Barbara Tobijasiewicz.
3. Unique limestone from Gotland
In 1904, the first Warsaw telephone exchange by Ericsson was installed. It was designed by the famous Isak Gustaf Clason, professor of the Royal Institute of Technology.
In a 1905 copy of “Przegląd Techniczny” magazine we read: “Despite its austerity, the façade has quite an aesthetic effect. The calm lines applied truthfully to the nature of the building material have been skilfully invigorated next to the bravely modelled mascarons thus honouring this harmonious composition in a modern style. The carpentry and, in particular, the painterly works have been made with a precision not often seen here. The restrooms and toilets are gleaming white. The walls are tiled. The lighting fixtures, brought here from Stockholm, excel in taste and quality of manufacture.”
The facade of the central telephone exchange was clad from the socle to ledge with light Swedish Gotland limestone. The building is a precious relic of architecture today – the more valuable that it is unreconstructable; the deposits from which the limestone originated are no longer in exploitation.
In the years 1906-1908, the central telephone exchange at 37 Zielna street was extended by adding the adjacent building at 39 Zielna street, known as the PAST ever since 1922 (from the acronym of the Polish Telephone Co. – Polska Akcyjna Spółka Telefoniczna, in which Ericsson was the majority shareholder). The edifice, reminiscent of a medieval castle tower, was the first high-rise in Warsaw.
Photograph of the main hall at the central telephone switchboard at 37 Zielna street. To the right – officers of the Russian White Army.
Warsaw, ca. 1900
The photographs come from the collection of Föreningen Stockholms Företagsminnen/Center for Business History, Stockholm.
Telephone operator Zofia Święcka.
Photo taken in the theatre school.
Warsaw, ca. 1920
From the private collection of Barbara Tobijasiewicz.
4. The first Warsaw high-rise
“When coming to Warsaw, we would lift our heads up standing before the Cedergren tower at Zielna street” – wrote the enchanted author of an article on high-rises published in the interwar period. “Warsaw is following in the footsteps of America. We already have telephones, lighting, and electric cable-cars – now we are about to start on incredible edifices which, for reason of their heights, are called sky scrapers in America. The first such sky scraper is already in construction on the initiative of the Swedish Cedergren Society. It seems it will be the tallest giant in Europe, of course apart from the church steeples.”
An article fragment from “Biesiada Literacka” from 1908
Building of the telephone exchange at 39 Zielna street photographed before 1936. It was 63 metres tall from the foundations, and 51.5 metres from the level of the pavement. To see “this curiosity” people came not just from the provinces – there was no building as tall as this in the entire Russian Empire. It was the first Warsaw high-rise which, in the years 1908-1910, was erected next to the exchange at 37 Zielna street.
5. Women in the Ericsson company
The Ericsson company followed an intentional policy of employing women. The situation of women had not been a rosy one – if they had no estate, were not married to a rich husband or had no dowry, they could not hope much for a career. The newly established role of a telephone operator gave them prestige, social advancement and financial independence.
Silent women in the grand Hall
The daughter of one of the telephone operators recalls: “when I was about four – I believe it was 1931 – my Mum took me once to her work on Zielna street. We lived very close by, at Twarda street, and it just happened that mother had a day off and we went for a stroll in the Saski Garden. She probably wanted to show me her place of work. It must have been the fourth or the fifth floor. I only took a small step inside as I felt shy. It was the hall, the rows of those ladies. And the silence! They all had earphones on their heads and on this podium behind them, there was this lady who supervised them.”
Portrait of Miss Helen Bors, a future telephone operator.
Warsaw, ca. 1920
From the private collection of Zofia Gajewska.
The interior of the Hall of the Telehone Operators at the telephone exchange at 39 Zielna street in Warsaw. In the middle – the shift manager suprvising the connectivity and the proper behaviour of the operators. The photo was taken in 1927.
6. We are looking for super ladies!
The candidates for the job underwent a very strict selection. The company looked for girls who had a nice voice, knew Russian, French or German. Ladies from good families were also chosen as it guaranteed good manners. Many of the operators were daughters of the Polish land gentry whom sudden twists of history had just deprived of wealth. Nobody landed in the “Swedish Tower” by accident. Apart from substantive supervision, the managers also acted as chaperons in order to keep the reputation of the operators absolutely intact – and there were many young men who wanted to flirt with “the ladies from the Swedish Tower”.
Ina Benita – a Polish actress from the interwar period. The telephone began to play a significant role in film scripts. The picture shows the unique white Bakelite telephone manufactured by PASE. 1930s.
Helena Rościszewska, the first manager of the telephone operators.
L. Rychter, worker at the Number Office in the exchange at Zielna street in Warsaw, 1908 r.
7. Ticket to the Swedish Tower
The future telephone operators had to present documents which confirmed their unblemished reputation. It was best if they were recommended by somebody from their families who had already worked at Ericsson and could vouch for the new employee. These criteria from before World War I did not change in the interwar period.
When Helena Borsówna came to Warsaw she rented a room at Zielna street in a building next to the PAST. It turned out that the daughter of their landlord worked at the Ericsson exchange.
A visit card with rusty smudges, reading Kazimiera Grassman (Kazimiera Malinowska née Adamczyk, I voto Grassman; a telephone operator before 1922, later typist in the Sejm, wife of senator Grassman), is a letter of recommendation for Miss Helenę Bors to the position of telephone operator:
“Dear Madame,
the person presenting this visit card is Miss Bors. I kindly ask you to accept her to the position of a telephone operator about which I have already asked you and received a positive answer. Let me take this opportunity and send my cordial greetings to you, Dear Madame.
Forever grateful, the former K.M. Warsaw, 15 February 1921”
The letter worked and Helena was invited for an interview to the “Swedish Tower”.
She became a telephone operator not long afterwards.
Władysława Helena Bors (later Turczyńska, on the left) became a telephone operator ca. 1920. In the photographs she is seen with a friend, also an operator from the exchange at Zielna street in Warsaw. They are posing in the photography studio in cyclist outfits – before or after a bicycle trip organised by their Swedish employer. Warsaw, ca. 1920.
A visit card with rusty smudges for the name of Kazimiera Grassman recommending Miss Helena Bors.
The photograph comes from the private collection of Zofia Gajewska.
8. Social security
At around the year 1906, the Cedergren Society employed 171 telephone operators in total. The ladies worked seven hours a day in shifts of three hours of work, three hours of rest, and again four hours or work.
Work for Ericsson introduced a revolution to Warsaw’s social order and tradition. For the first time not only were the special abilities of women noticed but they were also guaranteed social security and work standards that had not been known here before. Women who were employed in pastry shops, as cashiers, in the chancelleries of companies or offices were envious of the telephone operators. Working for the telephone company meant prestige.
Letter of intent
I, the undersigned, take the liberty of asking the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs for including me in their staff. I am of Roman Catholic confession, Polish, unmarried. I was born on 20 November 1895 in Warsaw. I have completed 4 classes of middle school in the Lithuanian Brest and, having obtained a certificate, soon afterwards took over the headmaster’s position in a school in the village of Bielawy in the district of Grodno; I managed the school for a year. The wish to continue education has led me to my home town where I took a position of a telephone operator at the Cedergren S-ty in Warsaw. At the same time I studied the course of two (!) next classes.
Due to the fact that Warsaw was taken over by German authorities, the financial conditions did not allow me to take exams. (…) I later gave private lessons. (…) At the same time, on 19 November 1918, I went back to my old post (?) of telephones in the inter-city exchange. The persons who can give me references are: Duchess Jadwiga Lubomirska – 2 Moniuszki street, prosecutor of the Appeals Court Jerzy Jerzy (?)okowski –23 Pańska street.
Warsaw, 21 June 1919
Fragment of a letter of intent by on the future telephone operators (original spelling).
Three colleagues telephone operators from the exchange at Zielna street in Warsaw. Warsaw, 1905.
The photograph is from the private collection of Barbara Kaczarowska.
Telephone operators during the name-day celebration of their superior. 1930s. The photographs come from the private collection of Barbara Tobijasiewicz.
9. Conversation experts
The hall of the exchange was located in the top two floors of the building at Zielna street. This was the kingdom of Ericsson technology. The operators sat behind huge switchboards. The layout of the hall was similar to that of the Cedergren exchanges in Moscow or the faraway Mexico City. However, the architecture of the Warsaw hall was the most modern.
“The upper floor is the art of technology at its best. The hall is huge, consistent, with no vaulting or arches and 12 metres in height. Made entirely of iron. The voice is lost in the space despite the constant talking that the connections require, there is almost complete silence. By the switchboards sit the “silent” operators”.
Every time the receiver is picked up by one of the subscribers, a light goes off through the tiny holes of the switchboard table. The silent operators transfer the received call by means of the equipment to the “speaking” operators sitting opposite to them, and only then do we hear everything that is part of the binding rules, and sometimes what is not in them…. “ reads the manuscript of the “History of the Development of Telephony”.
The interior of the Operators’ Hall of the Warsaw telephone exchange, ca. 1910. The photographs come from the collection of the Föreningen Stockholms Företagsminnen/Center for Business History, Stockholm.
Future operator, Zofia Święcicka. The photograph was attached to the documents submitted before the interview when she was applying for a job at the PAST telephone exchange. Warsaw, ca. 1920.
From the private collection of Barbara Tobijasiewicz.
10. Admirers of the telephone ladies
The entire complicated process of connecting took some five seconds. One had to be intelligent, quick on the uptake and have nerves of steel. Sometimes the work efficiency was as high as five hundred connections per hour.
The technological wonder, i.e. the exchange at Zielna street was frequently visited by Warsaw journalists. One of them compared the work of telephone operators to playing the piano with a silent keyboard.
“The operator is looking ahead at the table full of tiny milky glasses as if it was a music score. Each glass corresponds to a single telephone.”
Jadwiga Waydel-Dmochowska, author of the memoire book “The Old Warsaw” wrote: “The telephone operators had beautiful vibrant voices, as if they were made to be radio presenters. They connected quickly and ably, others were sometimes nervous and a bit gruff, but that did not happen often.”
Gentlemen who loved to flirt with the telephone operators of beautiful voices came in abundance. They fell in love with them remotely and became addicted to telephoning. And when they managed to learn the name of the girl, they would shower her with flowers or sweets sent in for Christmas or on her name-day.
A postcard that caused the outrage of one of the operator’s daughters as the press, who published it, captioned it with a suggestion that the operator had a run in her stocking.
In the photograph: Hanka Ordonówna. 1920s.
The photograph comes from the collection of the Mechanical Documentation Archives in Warsaw.
Wedding photo of telephone operator unknown by name, a colleague of Helena Bors, also an operator. Brwinów, 1937 r.
From the private collection of Zofia Gajewska.
11. Telephone Ladies’ Club
The operators spent their working hours in Hall “A” or Hall “B” of the exchange. The main place for spending their free time was the club salon located on the second floor of the telephone exchange at 37 Zielna street. It consisted of a kitchen, buffet, dining hall and a guest room for “resting or receiving people from the outside, or even for fun.”
The Swedes took care of their women staff. The employer knew very well that the best remedy for a sore back is a short nap during the tiring shift. For that reason, the operators had a resting room with a chaise longue and a buffet at their disposal because “this work done was in haste and stress.”
The room was called the guestroom of the telephone operators’ club.
The club was used to officially celebrate different functions, such as name-day parties of the operators. There was a piano in the corner, and the ladies were welcome to take a nap in the comfy armchairs. There was even a bedroom with two beds located next to the room of the manager. “The telephone operators who finished their shift at night and could not get back home (many lived in the suburbs), could enjoy the well deserved rest,” recalls Jadwiga Waydel-Dmochowska. The daughter of one of the telephone operators sometimes came by to pick up her mum from work. One time she was accompanied by her aunt. Janina was a talented pianist from an early age so she was seated by the piano in the guest room.
Fragment of the memoirs of one of the Warsaw telephone operators.
Interior of the Telephone Operators’ Room in the telephone exchange in Warsaw, ca. 1910.
The photograph is from the collection of the Föreningen Stockholms Företagsminnen/Center for Business History, Stockholm.
Former telephone operator Zofia Święcka at a New Year’s Eve ball, pregnant carrying her daughter Barbara.
Warsaw, 1930s.
From the private collection of Barbara Tobijasiewicz.
12. The last telephone operators
In the 1930s, Ericsson introduced new technologies which reduced employment and cut costs. In the times of automation, however, which made the functioning of the exchange cost-effective and accelerated the process of connecting the users, the operators who had been let go were not at all left abandoned by the company.
Depending on the years worked for the PAST Polish-Swedish Telephone Society, the women were given up to five thousand Polish zloty of severance. The workers’ representative in the management board was able to negotiate very good redundancy pay which was given to the ladies who had worked for at least a year. The money was paid on either a one-off basis or in instalments throughout a year. Telephone operators from the entire country took advantage of this privilege in the 1930s. By 1936, all telephone exchanges in Poland were fully automated.
I will build a house with my severance pay!
“My aunt, who was a telephone operator, used to say that half of the villa in Saska Kępa was built with the money that the mechanics earned with the Swedes, as they were really well paid,” recalls the daughter of one of the operators. “After the automation in 1936, the operators were all given notices and hefty severance payments. I accompanied my Mum when she picked up the money transfers from the post. Mum invested this money in a construction company. Then the war broke out and everything was lost.”
Fragment of the memories of one of the operators.
Interior of the Telephone Operators’ Hall in the exchange building at Zielna street in Warsaw. In the centre – the desk of the manager of the hall. Next to her stands the operators on duty whose task was to supervise the operators and check that they do not carry private conversations which were not allowed
The photograph is from 1904.
The operators in the office of the exchange building at 37 Zielna street (No. 35 back then) in Warsaw, ca. 1903.
From the collection of the Föreningen Stocksholms Företagsminnen/Center for Business History, Stockholm.
13. Oh, the terrible technology
An Association of Telephone Operators was established in 1928 in the Polish-Swedish Society.
It was on the basis of this agreement that the telephone operators were entitled to a high severance pay in case of a lay-off. Not knowing the content of these agreements with the PAST operators, writer Kornel Makuszyński lamented about the fate of the “Ericsson ladies”. He wrote: “The poor, poor ladies. (…) Such a pity, but that’s life. No use in crying, poor things. (…) We are all bound to meet this fate when the machine simply takes us by the neck and tosses us down the stairs as useless humans, the last of the Mohicans. Today, the automatic phone banished the hardworking ladies. Tomorrow, a telephone with no cable will destroy the automatic telephone, and then Lucifer will invent a machine that we’ll be carrying in the pocket of a jacket. (…).”
Trade Fair in Poznań, 1930. Exposition of the Polish Electrical Stock Exchange Company – PASE (incorporated in Poland by Ericsson in 1924).
Interior of the telephone exchange at 37 Zielna street as part of a design by Ragnar Östberg: the exhibition hall.
Warsaw, lata 1904-1918.
From the collection of the Föreningen Stockholm Företagsminnen/ Center for Business History, Stockholm.
14. The technology girls
The history which had its beginning in the early 20th century continues on. In 2004, Ericsson celebrated the centenary of its activities in Poland. 22 % of the company’s employees are women. Many of them work on technological solutions due to which 40% of mobile connections in the world are in operation thanks to Ericsson. Just like over one hundred years ago, it is these solutions that make it possible to introduce new technological innovations.
The rise in women’s employment is the result of the consistent policy of the company which supports people in the IT business. Ericsson is part of the IT for SHE programme of innovations which aims at encouraging women students to decide on a career in the technologies sector.
IT for SHE is a longer term systemic action. It engages prominent partners who believe in the need of fully activate the potential of women in the IT sector and who are committed to the future development of the labour market in the area of new technologies in Poland and in the world.
Only 13% of IT students in Poland are women. There are even fewer of them in technology corporations. The lack of specialists in the area of new technologies is already estimated at ca. 50 thousand in Poland, and by 2020, the number will have reached one million people in Europe. It is high time to focus on the wise use of the potential of technologically talented, ambitious young women. Because it is them who will be creating the future of new technologies.
Women participating in the IT for SHE programme.
Ericsson telephones.
From the left: GSM (2 G) T18 telephone from 1999; landline telephone, early 20th c.; FH212 telephone from ca. 1993‑1995, NMT (1G) system. Today Ericsson specialises in the development of state of the art IT technologies.
