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The typing pool - The typing pool department was a feature of many large companies from the turn of the 20th century into the late 1980s.

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Employment opportunity - Dozens of young women found employment in typing pools, many taking their first tentative steps into the workplace.

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Secretarial career - But the typing pool—also referred to as a secretarial pool—was not the place for anyone seeking a cushy number in a chatty atmosphere.

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Speed and accuracy - On the contrary, this was a world of strict time keeping, sharp shorthand skills, iron discipline, and light-fingered speed. There were few perks.

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Strict working conditions - The working day was perfunctory, and frankly harsh by today’s standards. For example, permission was needed in order to visit the toilet, and the absence was timed. (Photo: Wikimedia/CC BY 4.0)

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Sexist environment - And your average typing pool was a place where rampant sexism often went unchallenged or was overlooked. Women's rights was still an abstract concept in most office environments.

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Learning the basics - Typing skills were taught at school or college. It was a career path chosen by many girls.

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Classroom layout - In fact, the typing pool would have reminded many of a classroom interior, as desks were lined up in neat rows with all heads facing the front.

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Supervised - A supervisor, invariably stern and unblinking, would observe the speed and dedication of her youthful charges.

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Using a typewriter - Early typewriters were large and clunky. Banks of these mechanical clatter boxes stood to smart attention on every desk.

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Corporate soundtrack - The rapid tat-tat-tat of numerous typists hammering away on their keyboards became a defining soundtrack of the burgeoning corporate age.

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Job for life - Imagine the scene. It must have been deafening as generations of women tapped away for their livelihoods, honing a skill they’d have for life… or at least until they tied the knot and started a family.

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Shorthand - There’s typing and there’s typing. But to be employed in a typing pool meant a woman also needed to be competent in shorthand.

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Long and the short of it - On average, training as a shorthand typist took a year, usually at a technical college. 

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Plenty of vacancies - As working the proverbial nine-to-five took off in the 1950s, vacancies for skilled shorthand typists filled the classifieds.

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"Touch typing" - The technique required in a typing pool was called “touch typing,” which meant the typist was forbidden to glance at the keys while she typed.

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Faster and more efficient - Instead, the typist kept her eyes on her shorthand notebook, meaning she could work faster and more efficiently.

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Big business! - Typing pools ranged in numbers depending on the size of the business: the bigger and more successful the company, the more typists.

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More money - A shorthand typist commanded a higher salary than their fellow copy typists.

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"Take a memo" - Armed with additional Pitman’s shorthand skills, they were constantly in demand, not least because the boss (always a man in those days) wanted to show they were important enough to dictate letters.

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80 words per minute - As a shorthand typist you were expected to achieve 80 words per minute shorthand speed, no easy task!

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Critical eye - The supervisor was always checking your progress. She’d cast a critical eye over the shorthand notes and the typing. The pages would then be submitted back to the author, who would sign the work off or make changes.

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The cost of a mistake - Remember, back in those days there was no delete key to hit in case of a mistake.

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Retyping - If a typist blew it, it meant a new piece of paper and the laborious task of retyping an entire page.

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Blessing in disguise - Tipp-Ex correction fluid, invented in 1951 by Bette Nesmith Graham, was a blessing—but only for individual letter corrections.

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Style guide - Typists adhered to strict instructions on how to align a letter—company style was sacrosanct and it was vital to maintain the corporate image.

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Clean workspace - Typewriters were used Monday to Friday nine-to-five. That meant they needed to be regularly serviced and maintained by a dedicated team of mechanics. But a skilled shorthand typist was still expected to look after her own typewriter. A cleaning kit of two brushes—one for removing the rubber dust, the other to clean the typeface—was always near at hand.

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Exacting task - In those days, typewriters required an exact amount of pressure to give a nice clean, crisp, and legible end result. Long fingernails were out!

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Dictatorial - With the arrival of the desktop Dictaphone, women remained at their desks for even longer periods while listening through the headphones to type out their work.

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A woman's work is never done! -

Did you know that the world record for typing the English alphabet from A-Z is 3.37 seconds? They probably weren't using one of these typewriters!

See also: Facts about the world's most- hated jobs. 

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