The Sexual Division of Labor in Office Recording

In the 20th century, both lines were redesigned and sold as office machine "systems." Every aspect of dictation machine use was carefully defined by the manufacturers to appeal to advocates of Scientific Office Management-- a turn-of-the-century management fad. A desktop recorder called a "dictator" was the first stage in the chain (the user was also called the "dictator").The dictator was a man's machine. In ads, it was nearly always portrayed on the desk of the male executive, alongside that other essential executive business tool, the telephone. In reality, few executives adopted the use of dictation equipment. However, the mid-level employees who did use dictation to speed up their correspondence were usually men.

Instructional materials provided by Edison and Dictaphone taught men how to make a good recording, and tried to make them feel less awkward about talking into the machine. Because so many men (included the bosses) still felt silly using them, few corporations made it a company policy to use the recorders.

In between the male dictators and the female listeners ran (literally) office boys. These boys made the rounds in the office, collecting cylinders and carrying them to the central transcription pools. Included with each cylinder was a little slip of paper that carried additional information about what was recorded. If the dictator had made a mistake or had special instructions, he would note it on the slip of paper so that the typist could plan out her work.