Full Description
In this classic work of women's history (winner of the 1984 Dexter Prize from the Society for the History of Technology), Ruth Schwartz Cowan shows how and why modern women devote as much time to housework as did their colonial sisters. In lively and provocative prose, Cowan explains how the modern conveniences,washing machines, white flour, vacuums, commercial cotton,seemed at first to offer working-class women middle-class standards of comfort. Over time, however, it became clear that these gadgets and gizmos mainly replaced work previously conducted by men, children, and servants. Instead of living lives of leisure, middle-class women found themselves struggling to keep up with ever higher standards of cleanliness.
Contents
* An Introduction: Housework and Its Tools * Housewifery: Household Work and Household Tools under Pre-Industrial Conditions * The Invention of Housework: The Early Stages of Industrialization * Twentieth-Century Changes in Household Technology * The Roads Not Taken: Alternative Social and Technical Approaches to Housework * Household Technology and Household Work between 1900 and 1940 * The Postwar Years * Postscript: Less Work for Mother
