The Lima Phone Operators’ Strike of 1931: The Possibilities and Limits of Women's Labor Action in Peru

Abstract In August 1931, the telephone operators of Lima's US-owned phone company went on strike. The telefonistas, as these women operators were known, built alliances with feminist groups, labor organizations, and competing political movements to present themselves as decent young women abused by a foreign company. With critical national elections taking place in less than two months, defending the cause of the telefonistas became a question of defending Peru's women and honor. The telefonistas’ strategy quickly won them broad public support, but it also meant that the strikers were viewed more as exploited women who needed protection than as laborers. After an arbitration ruling awarded many of the telefonistas’ material demands, the telefonistas could not maintain support for continuing the strike until they secured the right to unionize. Without a union, the telefonistas remained vulnerable to retaliation and the threat that their jobs would be automated with the introduction of new technology. Thus, the telefonistas’ gender simultaneously elevated and limited their influence in the strike.