Emma Nutt
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Emma Nutt became the world's first female telephone operator on September 1, 1878, when she started working for the Edwin Holmes Telephone Despatch [sic] Company in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
This scene from "Bold Experiment – the Telephone Story", depicts the first women operators, Emma and Stella Nutt, working alongside boy operators at the Edwin Holmes Telephone Despatch Co. Boston, Massachusetts in 1878.
Switchboard operator
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In the early days of telephony, companies used manual telephone switchboards, and switchboard operators connected calls by inserting a pair of phone plugs into the appropriate jacks. They were gradually phased out and replaced by automated systems, first those allowing direct dialing within a local area, then for long-distance and international direct dialing.
Seattle telephone operators in a private branch exchange in 1952
New York telephone exchange in the 1880s, with both men and women as operators
Paris telephone exchange, 1900
Telephone operators in Stockholm, Sweden 1902–1903