For all its efficiency, the use of the office dictation machine never became as common as the use of certain other office technologies of the same era, such as the typewriter, or vertical filing systems. Most large U.S. businesses used dictation machines to some extent, but despite decades of marketing effort, not many managers and top executives adopted them. Still, the dictation machine industry soldiered on through the end of the 20th century and even grew somewhat. Technologies changed rapidly after 1945, and then went digital around 2000. At the same time in the late 20th century, the roles of men and women in business offices was also changing, with women gradually taking more management positions. But the increasing gender diversity in the office had little to do with the very rapid decline in office dictation use after about 1980s. The real culprit was the personal computer.

Backing up a bit, there were hints that office dictation was headed for trouble in the post-1945 period. The closely supervised nature of the transcription pools and the repetitive work involved in typing correspondence made the pools unpopular places to work. Women who started their careers in the transcription pools were typically promoted to become private secretaries. By the 1960s, as the feminist movement took hold, women more frequently fought to advance in their careers and to resist the “deskilling” effects of office technology. Private secretaries were reluctant to continue to use (or begin using) office dictation equipment, which was associated with a lower class of employee.

Instead, they preferred manual stenography, a skilled task that many had learned in high school or private business college, and which gave them access to higher wages. The promises made by dictation equipment manufacturers that machine transcription skills would improve career outcomes turned out to be false.  In fact, stenography and typing remained the most commonly taught “business” courses for female students long after the dictation machine appeared. Many female workers with stenography skills thought that the dictation machine was an attempt to “de-skill” their work and protested its use.

But that struggle ended before its results played out. By 1980, the technology of the personal computer was taking off. While the personal computer could not completely replace the typewriter for many years, when combined with a printer and word processing software, it seriously undermined the need for skilled typists. At that point, the time that letter-writers  might have spent dictating could be spent producing the finished product. Fortunately for those in clerical positions, the personal computer opened up new possibilities for typing-related work. However, the news was very bad for dictation equipment makers, most of whom went out of business or moved into other fields by the 1990s.

Interestingly, in today’s offices, the process of letter-writing (we must use this new term since most people stopped “dictating” and “transcribing” years ago) does not not seem to be divided according to gender or status in the company. In fact, in the very few types organizations where dictation has managed to survive, such as law offices and hospitals, employees at all levels are now relatively diverse, gender-wise, suggesting that dictation equipment’s history might have been much different, had it flourished.