t!cr,dr, October 24, 1C33
Daily Ncbrcsksn
P3 5
still can't do tiousework
When ths Census Bureau rounded
up the i:;uel iatlriic3, It recorded
another tep in the movement cf
women hto the work force, Tl c flares
rekssJ in its pycfj revert cn v;o-.
men shsv that i.i 1C;0 Ices then cne
thlrd cf adult females were employed
outside their homes, tud by KZO more
t - l k ...i V- i v.
la u:.'t.zr.':. to this familiar pheno
menon, we were cVercd a faniar
cspli nation. "Ons reason," a research-.
ct said, "is thet there Is less work to do
By now, the notion that there is less
work to do at home has become the
accepted wisdom cf modern America.
It is an article cf faith that the wonders
, of modern technology have freed wo
men from the household burdens cf
their foremothers..
After t2, women dont make can
dles, soap er.d clcth ct horns anymore. '
We have stoves end washing machines -and
even vacuum cleaners. With
machines doing the, housework so
tne tneory roes women could, ner-
haps had to, go outside the house to
..work, '. - .. . t.
What this theory does is to simul
taneously knock the amount of house
hold labor done by both the average
housewife and the average employed
wife. But this favorite theory just
doesnt hold up to rigorous analysis.
The real effects cf household tech
nology cn women's lives have been
much mere ambiguous than we ger.er-"
.11.. k.ii.. l r i a. . i
fcijr tvi.'vc. i.iuueru tuuu lary nave
eliminated drudgery we dent wash
cur clothes by the river with stones
anymore but they Co net seera to
have reduced the amount cf later'.'
r;nni
men chopped the wood, women cook
ed the stew. One by one, men's tasks
were Industrialized outside the home,
vhile women's tasks stsyed inside. Men
stopped chopping wood, but women
kept cooling. '
Ilomcmaking technology raised our
level of comfort and standard cflhing,
but didn't lower the amount of women's
work. The stove, which replaced the
open hearth, made cooking easier in
one way and more complicated in
another. At the same time, the three
pert meal replaced the one-pot meaL
Today, with or without a microwave
oven, frozen and occasional fast food,
the average women spends 21 hours a
week on meals, once you include
shopping, cooking, serving and clean
ing up.
As for laundry, our ancestors gener
ally had fewer clothes andor more
help keeping them clean. Laundry wa3
one of the few housekeeping chores
that had been industrialized in the
16th and 20th centuries. For a time,
commercial laundries picked up and
delivered the wash to most middle
class households.
The advent of the washing machine
during World War II meant, Cowan
says, that the woman endowed with a
Esndix would have found it easier to
do her laundry but, simultaneously,
TT V Daily
11 V T
i Ruth Ccvan, a professor at the Etate
University cfHcv? York at Zlzr.y Dree II
household techr.clcry with the &iv3
away title, "Here Work for Llother." At
the beginning cf American history, she
writes, men and women shared most
chores of daily life. To ma!:e a meal,
' EDITOR Lirry Sparki'
' 472-1758
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would have done more laundry and
more of it herself than either her
mother or her grandmother had."
Technology h increased the pro
ductivity of the average housekeeper.
The good news is that by 1C50 a
housewife could do what it took a staff
of three or four to do in 1850. The bad
news is that she did it alone.
It also changed the nature of house
work. As Cowan writes, "Before indus
trialization, women fed, clothed and
nursed their families by preparing . . .
food, clothing and medication. In the
post-industrial age, women feed, clothe
and nurse their families . . . by cooking,
cleaning, driving, shopping and wait
ing. The nature of the work has
changed, but the goal is still there and
so is the necessity for time-consuming
labor."
It is just not true that American
women entered the job market be
cause they had time on their hands.
Even today housewives spend CO hours
a week on work related to hcrr.es and
d cmp'eyed wives tpertd G3
hours a week. Both still do houeewcrk
virtually alone.
But it is true that technology has
allowed mothers who go to the
marketplace for one reason or another
t to do so without damaging their
families in crucial ways. The family of
today's working mother, unlike that of
half a century ago, doesn't have dirty
clothes and cold meels.
But they probably have a weary
mother. If all this makes you skeptical
about the value of "labor-saving" devi
ces, good. Machinery may glut the
market,1 but the commodity most in
demand is in short supply. It's that
precious thing called human help.
G1SC3, The Boston Gl&b-a
.. Newspaper company
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.WEIfflElU: .
li-Ji
FMEAK
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MacNeil and Jim Lehrer have
been bringing you news anal
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they're going to report the
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MacNeilLehrer NewsHour.
They II give you news sum
maries for the day, and then
f!) on to examine stories in
epth. So start getting the
news where you ve been get
ting the analysis.
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