ENGLISH

More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology from the Open Hearth to the Microwave

By Ruth Schwartz Cowan

Book information

Publisher
Free Association Books
Year
1989
ISBN
1853430765
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
49 MB (50886618 bytes)
Pages
300\300
DPI
600
Orientation
portrait
Paginated
yes
Scanned
yes
Time added
2016-10-07 02:58:27
householdscience and technology studiesWomen

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.

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