Dishwashers, Vacuum Cleaners and Feminism

I've been missing in action on the blog posting lately, mostly because I have been relatively busy with other shenanigans in life.

But anyway, a thought occurred to me today while doing laundry.

Which came first, feminism or home/family technologies?

At the end of the second World War, two things were going on:

1. A lot of middle class women (housewives) were in the workforce for the first time.
2. A lot of new technology had been created for the war, and could now be used to create consumer products.

One of the things that was a great liberator of housewives and contributed to women staying in the workforce was the fact that there were dozens of new technologies that allowed women to not have to be home all day. More and more foods could be purchased prepared or prepackaged, thanks to preservatives, fridges and freezes. Cleaning became easier with vacuum cleaners. Washers, dryers, microwaves - each of these things became suddenly more affordable to the middle-class family in this decade.

Women were no longer as burdened (at least as not as they used to be) by the need to spend the day cooking and preparing the home because such things became easier and simpler. I have one of my grandmothers Better Homes & Gardens cookbooks published in the 1950s, and there are numerous mentions of new gadgets and ways to save time while preparing meals for the wife's family.

Which leads me to my question - did this help to give feminism a little shove going into the 1960s? I think an argument could be made that the convenience driven, consumerist society actually helped liberate women more than we usually give it credit. 1950s housewives were not bra-burning feminists; they just wanted to get their housework done faster. And their demand for products to help them do that may have actually paved the way for future generations of women to get out of the house altogether. Women were still expected to take on the role as primary caregiver and homemaker, but at least the job was slightly easier.