Bellwether
Preorder Item
This item is on Preorder, with an expected delivery date of March 02, 2027
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Women’s work is calling. Will you answer the phone?
Throughout the mid-twentieth century, female telephone operators did far more than connect calls. Their voices soothed the anxieties of the modern age—charming infatuated suitors, informing curious residents, and providing life-saving warnings ahead of natural disasters. For decades, dating back to the late...
Published By Union Square & Co.
Format Hardback
Number Of Pages 336
Publication Date 03/02/2027
ISBN 9781454965442
Dimensions 6 inches x 9 inches
"Get ready to feel inspired! Bellwether offers a riveting portrait of courage and conviction at a time of rapid technological change, and a celebration of the era when women's voices connected a nation. With meticulous research and vivid storytelling, Kim Kankiewicz recounts the determined fight of telephone worker Lorena Weeks, whose challenge to one of the most powerful corporations in America helped make a more equitable workplace possible for generations. Lorena Weeks is a true American heroine, her name tragically lost to history. Until now."
—Laura Moriarty, New York Times-bestselling author of The Chaperone and Sunlight Finds You
“Kim Kankiewicz's Bellwether isn't just a breathtaking romp through a landmark legal battle for gender equality for telephone operators. It's also a deeply researched and loving meditation on the symbolism of the telephone in postwar America, the power and iconography of women's voices and labor, and a love letter to the invisible workers who connected and mythologized and translated America to itself as it became a world power. I loved every single word of it.”—Dahlia Lithwick, Senior Editor at Slate, author Lady Justice
“In Bellwether, Kim Kankiewicz deftly and engagingly tells the story of switchboard operator Lorena Weeks’s landmark court case—and in so doing, does the great service of allowing those thousands of unsung, invisible women to become, at last, visible.”—Matthew Goodman, New York Times-bestselling author of Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around the World
"An entertaining and inspiring narrative that traces the history of American women's (ongoing) journey to employment equality through the story of one very persistent woman. Bellwether is a fast-paced read that exposes the artifice of big corporations' promises, and demonstrates how a single determined person can literally make a difference for millions. A beautiful history of the United States in the 20th century viewed through the lens of a single woman's commitment to fairness. Kankiewicz's unlikely heroine is a model for us all!” —Nell McShane Wulfhart, author of The Great Stewardess Rebellion