Homefront Liberation

How technology saved time and promoted equality

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The Second Industrial Revolution brought clean water and electricity into our homes for the first time. Soon came a cornucopia of appliances that changed the face of housework and home life forever. Today, most homes can be expected to have a microwave, a dishwasher, a washing machine, and a refrigerator. These appliances and others have become so commonplace that we take them for granted. But their ubiquity conceals a forgotten truth; how technology saved our time and liberated the “home front.”

The Rise of the Electric Appliance

By the year 1900, the Second Industrial Revolution was in full swing. Through a growing wiring network, electricity from the newly invented steam turbine slithered into homes, enabling households to take advantage of electric devices for the first time. One of the primary drivers of electrification was the invention of the incandescent lightbulb a few years earlier. Lighting at night changed everything. With the incandescent bulb, we could safely work and play in the dark of night without candles or oil lamps. But beyond the lightbulb, electricity ushered in the area of the time-saving appliance.

Before the arrival of the electric washing machine, almost all US households relied on 12-cent “scrub boards” to do laundry. One would have to heat water on the stove, likely using coal or wood, and painstakingly scrub the clothes against the board. Clothes were wrung to remove excess water, either by hand or through a mechanical wringer, and then hung on a clothesline to dry. Electric washers went from virtually non-existent in 1900, to a feature of nearly three-quarters of households 60 years later. By 2000, over 90 percent of households had a washer. The impact of the washing machines was dramatic. A study conducted by the Rural Electrification Authority between 1945 and 1946 found that handwashing a 38 lbs. load of laundry took approximately 4 hours. Electric appliances cut the time required to just 41 minutes.

Another appliance, a machine that used electricity to store food at cold temperatures to prevent spoiling, or the refrigerator, was equally important. Before the refrigerator, food preservation was labor-intensive and time-consuming, often involving drying, salting, or pickling. Where this was not possible, however, it meant frequent trips to the local grocery store or butcher. Their utility drove rapid adoption, from virtually nonexistent in the 1920s, to a feature of over 40 percent of households by 1940. This is despite the economic malaise of the “Great Depression” during that time. By 1960, the “fridge” was all but a ubiquitous feature of American homes.

The electric dishwasher followed quickly behind. The electric dishwasher eased the burden of hand-washing dishes after mealtime, reducing the time and labor required for meal preparation. In the first half of the 20th century, the automatic dishwasher was a luxury reserved only for the wealthy. Innovation and economies of scale drove rapid adoption after the 1950s. By the close of the 20th century, over half of American households were equipped with one.

But even this growth rate pales compared to the microwave oven, which could heat food quickly and easily. The microwave was invented by accident in 1945 when Perry Spencer noticed that a chocolate bar in his pocket melted while he was working on a magnetron. The first microwave, produced in 1947, stood six feet high, weighed 750 lbs, and cost thousands of dollars (equivalent to tens of thousands today). By the 1970s, however, they had become compact and affordable enough to enter the household. From there, adoption was breathtaking. In 1980 only 7 percent of homes had a microwave, but by 2000 over 90 percent had at least one.

Liberation

Before the arrival of electric appliances, the average US household required about 58 hours of weekly labor for laundry, meal preparation, and cleaning. This burden was borne primarily by women, who stayed home while their husbands worked. Electric appliances slashed the hours required to maintain a home to about 15 by the end of the century. Essentially, electric appliances transformed housework from a full-time into a part-time job, one that husband and wife could share. Perhaps then, it should be no surprise that women began to join the workforce in greater numbers in the 1950s just as these time-saving devices became sufficiently affordable and commonplace.

Indeed, technological progress, as it turns out, is a great gender equalizer. According to research by Jeremy Greenwood, Ananth Seshadri, and Mehmet Yorukoglu, over half of the increase in female labor force participation in the 20th century can be attributed solely to technology. Thus, gender equality is as much a function of changing social norms as it is changing technology. Furthermore, as women joined the workforce in greater numbers, they joined the global problem-solving machine, driving additional production, consumption, innovation, and growth. As a consequence of growing household incomes alongside shrinking prices for goods and services, a poor family in the 10th income percentile in 1980 was just as well off as a rich one in the 90th percentile in 1900.

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