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In a mid-1940s study of farm wives, researchers took a before and after look at the impact of electricity. Doing the laundry by hand, one woman walked 3,181 feet. With just one electric washing machine, the total dropped to 332 feet.
At home, changes in technology helped to shrink the gender gap.
Home Technology
Laundry is the perfect example.
Rewinding to 1900, we would see almost all households using a scrub board. Women had to carry the water they needed to a wood or coal burning stove. Heated, the water was used for washing. Next, the clothes were rinsed, squeezed by hand or with a mechanical wringer, and hung out to dry. Lastly, awaiting wrinkle removal, a flat iron sat on a hot stove. Putting all of this together, it is likely that washing and ironing occupied 8.5 hours.
In addition to saving 2,489 feet, electricity reduced the time to wash a 38-pound load of laundry to 41 minutes and ironing went down to 1.75 hours from more than four.
As always, of course, the story is a bit more complex. In 1929, (described by a magazine) the housewife’s “obsession with ‘motorized implements’ led her to buy wringers directly attached to the tub. Metal rollers (or vulcanized rollers) readily squeezed out the water. The problem? The new power wringers accidentally grabbed women’s hands, sleeves, and hair while drying their clothing.
Still, as Hans Rosling (1948-2017) explains in his nine minute TED talk, the washing machine was magical. At the end, he surprises viewers by lifting a book out of the machine rather than clean clothes. Do take a look. I suspect that your opportunity cost is worth it:
From electrified washing machines, we can leap to irons, refrigerators, stoves, microwaves…we can just look at our kitchen. (With a broken dishwasher, I’ve just traded 30 minutes a day–3 1/2 hours a week from work time (or Doc Martin, my current Hulu diversion) to doing the dishes.
Our Bottom Line: Production Possibilities Graphs
An economist could use a production possibilities graph to illustrate the impact of the washing machine. Representing the maximum that land, labor, and capital can produce, the production possibilities frontier can also show economic growth when it moves to the right because of innovative capital.
Please note that our axes could have been countless pairs of goods, services, and categories that use the factors of production–land, labor, and capital. The key is that a fundamental change in a factor of production expands productive capability:
Where are we? About much more than clean clothing, a washing machine frees women from the shackles of housework. Becoming more productive, they elevate their value and diminish the gender gap while also fueling economic growth.
My sources and more: An online excerpt from Evolving Households: The Imprint of Technology on Life had the analysis and statistics for the washing machine. I also recommend Stanley Lebergott’s Pursuing Happiness for a classic look at the impact of household technology.
4 Comments
Watching the video, when Hans describes his grandmother watching the entire washing machine cycle, I’m reminded of little 4 year-old me, who lined up a bunch of chairs in the kitchen so we could all watch the new dishwasher (circa 1968). Oh, for the loss of such innocence!
Yes, Indeed. Thanks for sharing the story.
Tried to comment earlier but did not work, so here we go again.
Hans explaining how his grandmother watched the entire cycle of the washing machine reminds me of how I, at about 4 or 5 years of age in the late 1960s, lined up a bunch of chairs in the kitchen so we could all watch the new dishwasher do its thing.
The Ted talk video was excellent and captures a lot of what I think will drive the world’s economies and conflicts over the next 30 years – bringing cheap, clean energy and energy-saving appliances to everyone (or, at least more). It has always been amazing to me that we, and I mean ALL of us on the earth, largely deprive ourselves of so much progress by “making” half the population (and by that I mean women, not poor people) largely live as slaves. No education, no study – just make babies, and cook and clean.
Sure, if overnight everyone got all the wonderful life improvements that we in the developed world take for granted – cars, refrigerators, microwaves, ovens, paved streets, clean running water, etc, there would be a lot of people who could not handle it. But so much human potential is “wasted” now with so many denied the rights to ANY education (higher or otherwise). How many Einsteins have we lost? For every Mary W. Jackson (of Hidden Figures fame) there must be hundreds if not thousands of others who don’t get the same opportunities (and nothing was handed to Mary – she had to fight all the way). How many medical or biological science and technological advancements and improvements have we NOT developed over the years. What about Art, how far behind are we from our potential?
Yes, Indeed. Thanks for sharing the story.