In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, women typed their way to financial independence. In 1907, Mary E. Orr typed her way onto the board of the Remington Typewriter Company, becoming the first woman elected to a publicly listed company. 1 She also served as the company’s assistant treasurer.
Orr began her career in the very early days of the typewriter, as a stenographer and typist earning $6 per week in 1883. While her ascension decades later to Remington’s board was remarkable, it was not entirely improbable. Stenography and typing created opportunities for women seeking employment outside traditional roles, leading to positions of leadership in quite a few instances.
“Regarding the possibilities that lie before a girl who takes up shorthand as a profession,” she said, “I know of no field better calculated to insure advancement to one who really attends to business and is ambitious to succeed. In her position as stenographer the secrets of a business are entrusted to her. As a rule a woman is selected in large corporations to fill the position of confidential secretary. The barrier of sex is fast being broken down, and the capable woman who grasps her opportunities is not confined to the narrow sphere that some would have us believe.” 2
(In 1917, one business school noted Orr’s success as an example of the opportunities stenography afforded young professionals.)
Orr dismissed the meme of the “attractive” typist, stating, “We have heard a good deal of talk about the ‘pretty’ stenographer being the only one who need apply for a position, but that has more foundation in fiction than in fact it is mainly newspaper talk. An employer is looking for a girl who can do things and do them right, and it matters little to him whether or not nature has endowed her with beauty so long as she combines a neat and tidy appearance with a business-like manner. Ability is the thing that counts here as elsewhere. It is a girl of ability and the one who proves herself trustworthy who is wanted and who succeeds and ability is ofttimes simply the product of one’s talents multiplied into one’s industry.”
Orr began her career as a stenographer and typist for the Commercial Typewriting Office in New York City, and subsequently partnered with her employer to establish Stewart and Orr, a copying firm. She joined Remington in 1889, serving 47 years with that company, including five years as a board member.
When she died in 1936, the New York Times heralded her as a business pioneer, stating that “[s]he was one of the first women named to the board of such a large corporation,” a point few modern historians note. Robert Messenger offered this corrective in 2013.
The Literary Digest (New York, NY), December 7, 1907 –
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