the grand domestic revolution

8/11/2019 The Grand Domestic Revolution

1/17

The Grand DomesticRevolution:A History of Feminist Designsr American Homes,Neighborhoods, and Cities

Dolores Hayden

The MIT PreCambrdge Maachett

ad Lodo Eglad


2/17

AcknowledgmentsVIII

Cntents

I

Intruction

The Grand Dmetic Revltin

2

II

Communitarian Sialism and

Domestic Feminism

2

Siaim in Mdel Village

32

3

Feminim in Mdel Hehld

54

III

Cperative Housekeeping

4Hewive in Harvard Sare

66

5

Free ver Individa Svereign

and Integral Cperatr

90

6

Sragit Philanthrpit

and Temperance Wrker

114

IVWidening Circles of Re

7Dmetic Space in

Fictinal Siait Citie

134

8Plic Kitchen

Sia Settlementand the Cperative Idea

150vCharlotte Perkins Gilman

and Her Inuence

9metic Evltin

r Dmetic Revltin?

182

10

Cmmnity Kitchen

and Cked Fd Service

206me witht Kitchen

nd Twn witht Hewrk228

12

Crdinating

en nteret

266

VI

Backlash

3

Madame Kntai

and MrCnmer

280

4

Feminit Pitic

and Dmetic Lie

290

Bibliographical Note

30 6

Notes

3 10

Appendix

Tae ACked Fd Deliver ServiceFnded 186919234 6Tae A.2Cperative Dining Cl,

Fnded 18851907352

Index

356


3/17

I Inroducion


4/17

demand for the we who acts as cook, as

nurse-maid or seamstress, or all three fair

wages or her righul share in the nett income demand that the bearing and rearing of chldrenthe most exacting of employments and involvingthe most terrible risks, shall be the best paid wokin the world. . . .

he Revoution69The private kitchen must go the way of the spin

ning wheel, of which it is the contempor.

_aie Home ourna

99The big houses are going to be built. The BabyWorld is going to eist The Grand DomesticRevolution is going to take placeWoohu an Cain Weeky1871

1

A Los eminis Tradiion

Cookin ocarin r chirenan

ceanin houeta often thouht of awoman work to be perrme without

pay in ometic environmenthave away

been a major part of the wor neceary

abor (.Yet no inutria ociety ha

ever ove the probem that a exua ivi

ion of thi abor create r womenNor

ha any ociety overcome the probem

that the ometic ocation of thi work cre-

ateboth r houewive an r empoye

women who return om ctorie an

oce to a econ ob at home Thi booki about the rt feminit in the Unite

State to ientify the economic expoitation

of women ometic abor by men a the

mot baic caue of women ineuaity I

ca them materia feminit becaue they

are to ene a "ran ometic revou

tion 2 in women materia conitionhey emane economic remuneration

r women unpai houeho aborThey

ropoe a compete tranrmation of the

patia ein an materia cuture ofmerican homeneihborhooan cit

ie Whie other feminit campaine r

oitica or ocia chane with phioophi-

ca or mora arumentthe materia mi-

nit concentrate on economic an patia

iue a he bai of matria ife

Between the en of the Civi War an

the beinnin of the Great Depreion

three eneration of materia feminit

raie namenta uetion about what

a cae "woman phere an

oman work They chaene two

The Gand DmesticRevuin

characteritic of inutria capitaim: the

phyica eparation of houeho pace

om pubic pacean the economic epa-ration of the ometic economy om the

poitica economy In orer to overcome

pattern of urban pace an ometic pace

that ioate women an mae their o-

metic work inviibethey eveope new

rm of neihborhoo oranizationin-

cuin houewive cooperativea we a

new buiin typeincuin the kitchen-

e houethe ay care centerthe pubic

kitchenan the community inin cub

They ao propoe ieafeminit citieBy reenin houework an the houin

nee of women an their miiethey

puhe architect an urban panner to

reconier the eect of ein on miy

ife For ix ecae the materia feminit

expoune one power iea that women

mut create feminit home with ociaize

houework an chi care bere they

cou become truy eua member of

ociety

he utopian an pramatic ource ofmateria feminimit broa popuar ap

peaan the practica experiment it pro

voke are not we known Since the 1930

very few choa or activit have even

upecte that there miht be uch an

inteectuapoiticaan architectura

traition in the Unite StateIn the eary

1960when Betty Friean earche r a

way to ecribe the houewife "probem

that have no name an ette on the

"feminine mytiue Charotte Perkin

Giman Women and Economics (ubtite


5/17

1. Houswf makng ps w dryng aundrby r and mndng wo cdn onisp Mrs. G. Ab The Skill Hosew'sBook: or Complete Guide o Domestic Cooke, Tase

Comft and Eonomy 853. Cousy Hnr rancs du Pon Wnrur Musum bray.

4 noduon

Th Eonom Ftor Btwn Mn nd Womn

s Ftor n Sol Evoluto) had been ot

of prnt r decade. Femnt avdy read

Gman work agan, begnnng n the ate1960, bt her book reappeared wthot

any redcovery of the htorca context of

matera femnt thoght or potca prac-

tce that had npred them.Htoran

ch a Car Deger and Wam ONe

mtakeny characterzed Gman a an ex

tremt. No one recognzed that he wa

bt one member of a vta and vey trad-

ton whch ao ncded ch power po-

emct and actvt a Mena Fay

Perce, Mare Steven Howand, VctoraWoodh, Mary vermore, Een Swaow

Rchard, Mar Hnman Abe, Mary Ken

ney O'Svan, Henretta Rodman, and

Ethe Per Howe, a advocate of the

femnt tranrmaton of the home.

The o of the matera femnt trad

ton ha ao ed choar to mndertand

femnt deoogy a a whoe.The over-

archng theme of the ate nneteenth and

eary twenteth centr femnt movement

wa to overcome the pt between dome-tc fe ad pbc fe created by ndtra

captam, a t aected women. Every

femnt campagn r women' atonomy

mt be een n th ght.Yet choar

have tended to dvde th coherent trg-

ge nto eparate cton. Typoogca a-

be ch a ragt, oca femn, and

dometc femnt dtngh too harpy

between women who worked on pbc, or

oca, e fom thoe who worked on

prvate, or my, e Mot femnt

whed to ncreae women rght n the

home and mtaneoy brng homeke

nrtrng nto pbc feFrance Ward

exhorted the member of the Women'

Chrtan Temperance Unon to ndertakethe pbc work of "mncpa hoekeep-

ng and to "brng the hom nto the

word, to "make the whoe word home-

ke Vote, hgher edcaton, ob, and

trade non r women were demanded n

the name of extendng and protectng,

rather than abohng, woman' dometc

phere A San B. Anthony tated her

am: "When ocety rghty organzed,

the wfe and mother w have tme, wh,

and w to grow nteectay, and wknow the mt of her phere, the extent of

her dte, are precrbed ony by the

meare of her ab ty. 7 Whether fem-nt oght contro over property, chd

ctody, dvorce, "vontar motherhood,

temperance, prottton, hong, ree

dpoa, water ppe, choo, or work-

pace, ther am were thoe mmarzed

by the htoran Aeen Kradtor: "women

phere mt be dened by women 8The matera femnt ch a Perce,Gman, vermore, and Howe ocatedthemeve and ther campagn to ocaze

dometc work at the deoogca center of

the femnt movement.They dened

women contro over woman' phere a

women contro over the reprodcton of

ocety. They hed the nteecta grond

between the other femnt campagn

drected at hoewve atonomy n do-

etc fe or at women' atonomy n the

rban commnty. Ther ntence that a

hoehod abor and chd care become o

5 Gand oms Rvouon

ca abor wa a demand r homeke, nr-

trng neghborhood By that empha,

they nked a other act of mnt

agtaton nto one contno economcand pata trgge ndertaken at ever

cae om the home to the naton. Becae

ther theoretca poton repreented the

ogca extenon of many dea abot

women atonomy, matera femnt ex-

erced nence r beyond ther nmer

ca trength. n the haf centry precedng

917, abot ve thoand women and men

had partcpated n femnt experment to

ocae dometc work, whe two mon

were member of the Natona AmercanWoman Srage Aoc aton (NAWSA.

Neverthee, NAWSA' eader, Carre

Chapman Catt condered Gman the

greatet vng Amercan femnt r Har-

ret Stanton Batch, ragt and member

of the Socat Party, Gman' Womn nd

Eonoms wa a "Bbe 0By darng to peak of dometc revo

ton, Perce, Gman, and other matera

femnt deveoped new denton of eco

nomc fe and ettement degn that manyocat n the Unted State and Erope

ao accepted, athogh they often ree-

gated thee e to ome tre tme,

"after the revoton, jt a ome ra-

gt pt them o to be deat wth after

wnnng the rage. In addton, the ma

tera femnt won ae n Erope, ch

a Ava Myrda n Sweden and y Bran

n Germany.

Potca actvt a dvere a Ezabeth

Cady Stanton, Aexandra Koonta,

Ebeneer Howard, and Fredrch Ene


6/17

ackowledged he socalao of domesc

work as a goa hey suppored No oly

was he maeral fems pogram a es-

seal demad r ecoomc ad socaljusce r oehalf of he populao I

red acvss' magaos ecause was

also a program r workers' corol of he

reproduco o socey, a program as exh

arag as he deal of workers' corol of

dusral produco

However he dereces ewee so-

cass mss ad maera femss o

workers' corol o he socalao of do-

mesc work was susaal Salsssuch as Egels ad Le argued hawome's euay would resul om her

volveme dusral produco,

whch would e made possle y he pro

vso of socaed chd care ad od

preparaoSaled domesc work was,

r hem oy a meas o h s ed. hey

dd o cosder socaled domesc work

o e meagul work, ad hey assumed

ha would e doe y lowsaus

wome O he oher had some Amer

ca femss such as Florece Kelley adula Lahrop looked o he capals sae

o provde servces o help employed

wome ad dd o aalye he drec

ees o dusral capalsm such serv

ces would mply

Oly he maeral femss argued ha

wome mus asser corol over he mpor-

a work of reproduco whch hey were

already perrmg ad reorgae o

oa ecoomc jusce r hemselves

hey demaded oh emuerao ad

hoor r woma's radoal sphere of

6 Ioduco

work whle cocedg ha some wome

mgh wsh o do oher kds of work

hey were o prepared o le me argue

ha a woma's eualy would ulmaelyres o her aly o uderake "ma's

work a cory or a oceNor were

hey prepared o descr he sae as he

agecy o her lerao. Whle maeral

femss dd somemes drf oward hese

posos (Charloe Perks Gma o he

socals Elle Rchards o he fems r

exampe usually hey saed cearly ha

wome's work mus e corolled y

wome ecoomcally, socally, ad

evromeally

Femsm a ocasmAhough he maeral ms rado s

oday reavely ukow s emphass o

reorgag wome's laor as he maeral

ass o he reproduco of socey s d

recly releva o oday's polcal sruggles.

Maera emsm lumaes he hsor-

cal schsm ewee he wo greaes sal

movemes o he lae eeh ceury

Mrxa socalsm ad femsm ecause

derves drecly om a moveme com

muara socalsm whch aedaed ad

o some exe geeraed oh. he eary

eeeh ceury commuara so

calss such as Roer Owe ad Charles

Fourer crced dusral capasm r

s eecs o huma work ad oered pro

grams r ecoomcaly reorgaed com

mues ha always gave eual wegh o

household aor ad dusral laor. her

sghs aou he mpoace of domesc

work were exeded he maeral fem

s rado, whe Marxa socalss

developed he commuaras' crue of

dusral work.

Uruaely whe Marx ad Egescarcaured commuara socasm as

uopa ad descred her ow sraegy

o orgag dusral workers as

scec socasm, hey los sgh of he -

male haf of he huma race, whose house-

hod laor was esseal o socey ad was

aso shad y dusral capalsmHav-

g developed a much more csve cr

ue of capal ad s workgs ha he

commuaras Marxa socass aked

persuasvey o mae dusral workersaou seg he meas o produco ad

gored wome's work ad reproduco.

Ahough Eges coceded ha he my

was ased o "he ope or dsgused do-

mesc esaveme of he woma 2 adsaed ha he mly he ma repre-

seed he ourgeos ad he we he pro-

eara Marxss reused o espouse ay

accs amed a lerag wome om

hs esaveme.Some eve opposed su

age r wome.Ohers used msm asa derogaory erm o crce polcal

devao

Meawhle emss who were orga-

g oh housewves ad employed wome

uesoed he Marxss' socalled class

aayss ecause o woma had he egal

rghs or ecoomc advaages of a ma of

her cass. hroughou he eeeh ce

ry employme r wome was geeraly

resrced o a arrow rage of sex

sereoyped owpayg jos; was

dcul or mposse r wome o ear

7 Th Grad omstc Rvolutio

eough o suppor hemselves le aoe de

pedes. As a rue hey were excluded

om rade uos as wel s male rades,

whe uos campaged r wha heycaled a ml y wage r me. Wome

coud o dee her ow sruggles r ec-

oomc ad polcal auoomy erms of

class sruggle orgaed aroud her hus-

ads' or hers' occupaos. Isead hey

worked r eua female rghs surage

housg educao jos ad rade uos

r wome.

he sp ewee Marxa socass ad

femss he secod half of he e-

eeh ceury was a dsasrous oe roh movemes.Each had a pece of he

ruh aou class ad geder produco

ad reproduco he Marxss los sgh

o he ecessary aor o oe haf o he

popuao; he mss os sgh of cass

srucure uder capasm ad addressed

mos o her demads o he sae Oly

he small group o maeral emss led

y Perce, Glma Howes ad ohers car

red o campags o ed he ecoomc ex

ploao of household aor hodg, everso recarousy, o he eef ha wome's

laor he househod mus e he key s-

sue campags r wome's auoomy

order o dee her fems sruggle

r womes coro of her aor hey

used ecoomc argumes aou wome's

work smlar o he Marxss' argumes

aou me's work u hey saw geder

raher ha cass, as he ufyg caegory.

sor as maera emss worked

ces ad ows hey developed he earer

commuara socals rado of spaal


7/17

anayi to accompany economic anayi.

hey argued that the entire phyical en-

vironment o citie and town mut be re-

deigned to reect euality r women(hi wa a mot ignicant contribution

that corrected ome o the earlier com-

munitarian tendencie to work only in e-

perimental ocialit viage. At the ame

time the material eminit accepted the

communitarian weaket argument: the

eie that ater the reorganiation o hu

man work and the phyical environment

there would be no reproduction o the o-

cia reation o capitalit production

therere clae in ociety would no ongerutain themelve.hi eie in the

peaceu evolution o a cae ociety let

material eminit very vulnerable to ece

attack om arge indutrial corporation

who had an immediate economic interet

in preventing women om ociaiing do-

metic work. hrough the 920 thi ack-

lah caught them unprepared ecaue they

had no adeuate analyi o the power or

the working o capitalim.In thi decade

the cooperative movement which had pro-vided many tactic r the rmation o

houewive producer and conumer co

operative ued y thee eminit wa alo

oten overwhemed by corporate competi-

tion and epiode o Redbaiting

In part the material eminit ilure to

develop a ull critiue o indutrial capita

im wa baed on their belie in ocial evo

lution a an agency o economic and uran

tranrmation. Having read Charle

Darwin Herbert Spencer and Leter

Ward they were o ure that capitalim

8 Itrodto

would lead to ocialim and o convinced

that dene indutrial citie would ecome

cooperative human communitie that hey

were unprepared r the development omonopoy capitalim and uburban iola

tionHere the material eminit hared

the optimim o Nationalit Popuit So

ciait Chritian Sialit Fabian So-

ciait and even ome lieral rerme o

their day including many architect and

uran planner who believed in the indu-

tria city and it liberating potentia

Uran Evouion

he year when material eminit voringocialied dometic work were mot active

pan the rie and decline o the dene in

dutria capitait city hi era wa oe o

increaed concentration o uran popla

tion and contant technological innovation

a compared to the ueuent period o

monopoly capitalim which wa character-

ied by decreaed reidentia denitie and

ma production o earier technoogical in

vention he materia eminit cam

paign began with rt demand r pay rhouework in 868 a campaign contempo-

rary with architect promotion o collec-

tive urban reidential pace in eate citie

through the deign o the earliet apart

ment houe built r uppercla and

middlecla reident and the deign o

model tenement r the poor.heir cam

paign ended in 931 ater more than a

decade o Redaiting o eminit with

the Hoover Commiion Report on H

Building and Ho Ownship a report advo

cating inglemiy home ownerhip which

9 Te Grad ometi Revotio

.2 Seve mad Bak River a Wioabot 1905 Care Va Sai potograper.Tey demotrate te tak of weepg rbbg maig patry ervg reeivg a viior'ard arg r idre ad peeg i btweter tey wored r oe oeod or rmay i ear. Corey of te Sate HioriaSiety of Wo


8/17


9/17

nmic bsis f dmestic wrk urbniztin

hd begun t chnge the envirnment

bsis therere, sme mteri miniss

rgued tht the re f the husewi ndthe design f the dmesic wrkpce must

evve in mre cecive directin As

Omsted hd ned when describing the

evutin f the Americn ciy, infstruc

ture such s wter pipes, teegrph ines,

nd ue ines cntributed mke huse-

hds mre physicy dependen upn mu-

nicip nd cmmerci services. teri

is feminists cncuded tht wmen, rher

thn men, mus cntr these new services

nd use hem s their bse f ecnmicpwer Frm cntempry vnge

pint i seems tht husewrk is pr-

dxic civity whse rm hs emined

much the sme during the st century

the unpid husewi ne in he hme s

dmesic wrkpce whie its cntent hs

evvedDuring the er f industri cpi

tism, hwever, mteri feminists be-

ieved th bth he rm nd the cntent

f husewrk wud underg drsic

chnge. They beieved tht dmesic evuin wud pre urbn evutin rther

hn cntrdict it.

In the preindustri er he mriy f

wmen wrked ngside their husbnds

nd chidren n subsistence rms, ding

the hrd wrk necessry r the miy t

survive spinning w nd x nd mk-

ing cthes, grinding grin in ur nd

mking bred, cking in n irn pt ver

n pen re, mking sp nd cndes,

tending kitchen grdens, rising nims

This rund f ctivities cntributed t

2 ntroduction

heir miies' d, cthing, nd sheter,

nd perhps prduced sme surpus t br

er with neighbrs. With the beginning f

industriizin in he United Sttes,wmen begn t be invved in ntin

ecnmies s bth cnsume f mnuc

tured gds nd s wge wrkers in ct

ries, shps, nd ces Frm wmen

strted t purchse texies, sp, cndes,

nd then cnned ds wmen, mrried

nd singe, stted t ern wges in textie

mis, cmmerci undries, nd shps, s

we s in heir trditin feme ccup-

in, dmesic service (1.2 ). Becuse dmes

ic spce ws s much n ecnmic nd sci prduc s pubic, urbn spce, the

rmhuse, with its cpcius strge nd

wk spes, gve wy t ubn nd sbur

bn dweings wih ess spce nd mre

res devted he cnsumptin nd dis-

py f mnuctured gds.

These chnges in wmens wrk nd d

mestic spce were sw, cuse techngi

c innvtin ws wys much hed f

diusin. Histrins f e chngy such s

Siegied Giedin hve ften gssed verthe prbem f mesuring diusin.w

ever, uth Schwrtz Cwn, Susn Kein

berg, nd Susn y Strsser hve studied

husehd echngy nd shwn tht mst

wrkingcss miies nd mny mide

css fmiies cked vrius brsving

devices nd ppinces ng fer mnuc

turers herded them s irting hse

wives Whie he diusin f new inven

tins ws sw, industriiztin cn

sid t hve hd tw mjr eecs n mst

husewives hrughut the nineteenth nd

ery twentieh centuries.nuctured

gds k sme pr f husehd br

u f he huse. Husewives were sti e n-

cumbered wih cking, bking, cening,sewing, undry, nd chid cre, but hey

were newy cnscius f their ck f csh

in n ecnmy incresingy depending

upn csh rther hn brter. Indusri-

iztin s ered incresing numbers f

wmen pid wrk in cries (1 ), eving

the husewife wihut dmesic servnts,

especiy in rur res but s in the cit-

ies (1. , ., 1.6. rried wmen did n

ften ke pid jbs fewer thn 5 per-

cen were empyed utside the hme in890.The grwth f mnucturing ment

th whie he rest f the sciety ppered

be mving wrd sciized br,

he husewife, encsed in wmns sphere,

swy becme mre isted m her hus-

bnd, wh nw wrked wy m hme

her chidren, wh ttended sch dy

nd the rur sci netwrks f kin nd

neighbrs which were disrupted by migr

tin t the grwing urbn centers

Nncy Ct hs nyzed he imprtncef wmns sphere t the Unied Sttes s

deveping industri, urbnized, cpit-

ist sciety ciming t be demcrcy: "By

giving wmen the sme ntur vc

tin, he cnn f dmesticity cssed them

tgether.This denitin hd du

nctin in the ntin cutre Under

stnding the rupture between hme nd

he wrd in terms f gender did mre

hn eect recnciitin t the chnging

rgniztin f wrk.The demrctin f

wmens sphere m mens prvided se

13 Grand oms tc Rvouto n

cure, primry sci cssictin r

ppuin wh resed t dmit scribed

stuses, r the mst prt, but required de-

erminnts f sci rder . . Sex, nt

css, ws t he bsic ctg. On h bsis

n rder cnsistent with demcric cuture

cud be mintined 19 The prive hmews the spi bundry f wmns

sphere, nd the unpid dmestic br un

dertken in th spce by the isted

husewife ws the ecnmic bundry f

wmns sphere "A wmns pce is in

the hme, nd " wmns wrk is never

dne wee he usu, bsic denitins f

wmn's sphere. Abve , wmnssphere ws be reme m the csh

ecnmy: "Our men re sucienty

mneymking Let us keep ur wmen

nd chidren m the cngin s ng s

pssibe, wre Srh seph He in

18 2. "y wife desn wrk becme

the me bst reecing husewives' sep-

rin m the mrke ecnmy nd the

resutn invisibiity f their br.

The ntispiece m husehd mn

u f the 18 0s iustres the meri cu -ure f wmn's sphere: the husewife is

shwn rrming seven dierent sks,

wys in istin excep r the centr me

din, where she is reding t her chi-

dren (1.7 ).A husehd mnu f the

1850s cmes cser t true picture by de-

picting the simutneity f the husewifes

mny brs: the wmn bkes, dries un

dry by the re, nd tempts t muse her

chidren, incuding ne ynkng t her skit

(1.1 ).This is sti n idyic picture. d-vice mnu ever iustrted the hevier r


10/17

O prcnt

40

30

20

1

13 Female paticipation n the paid abo ce890-974 howing pecentage o a womenand o maied women Souce o data: AeaWorking Woen ed Roayn Baxandall LindaGodon Suan Reveby 976. Maied women'ate o paid labo ce paticipation in 974wa moe than eight time the ate in 1890 890 9 930

milons

_..-14 United State total popuation uban population and numbe o cupied houing unit18901970. Souce o data: US Cenu oHouing 970 and US Bueau o the CenuHouehold ize ha deceaed om about toabout 3 peon O the tota houing unitavaiable in 970 69.1 pecent wee onemytuctue Depite the teadiy inceaing popu

ation in uban aea ony 45 pecent o aunit wee in tuctue including ve o moeunit

"

950 97 99

populato

/.

./'/ b po p lti o

ocped hosigts

0 prt

6

so

40

3

20

0 80

l"m ..,

4

35

30

50

90

'

900 90

\\

\

of l non grcltrl womnworks

o l wo m wo rk s

90 930

5 Pecentage o women in the paid abo ce

engaged in houehold abo 1870930, compaing all women wage eane in nonagicultual cupation and all women wageeane Souce o data: David Katzman SevenDays A Week. The etun o women to houehodlbo ate Wold Wa

I isclea

16 Numbe o houehod woe (evantcoo and laundee) pe 000 popuation1880920 compaing thee egion nothouth and wet) and thee citie within thoe egion Boton Richmond and Denve) Souceo data David Katzman Seven Day A Week. Citie had moe houehold woe than the egiona aveage epecialy in the outh

\Rcmon

--

,

-

',

Boso

--

',oenver

50-

.....

-01th0- JOt...:est1 1890 900 90 9


11/17

more npleasant domestic work: drawing

water om a welcarring it to the hose

chopping wood r ressweltering over an

iron cookstovegrappling with a heavblock of icedraining an iceboor empt

ing sops. Nor did the manals pictre the

tedios seqence of tasks involved in a ob

sch as landrr which water had to be

heated on a stovecarriedand pored into

movable tbshen cothes were soaked

scrbbed and rised i the tbswrng ot

b hadhng ot to be driedlaboriosl

pressed with crde atirons heated on the

reldedand pt awadrdger which

gave Ble Monda its nameWhile the hosewife in an eastern cit or

town seemed to have a r easier lot than

her sister on the ontier after the vl

Wareven the rban hosewife seemed to

material feminists to be a crios srvival

om a earierpreindstria eraa worker

who dabbed in threeor veor seven

trades at home and badl needed the

benets of indstria technolog and the

specialization and division of labor In

868 Melsina Fa eirce characterizedthe hosewie as jackofaltradesand

Voltairine de lerethe American anar

chist lectrerdened home r an adi

ence in 898 as on an innitesimal

small scale a landrbakerodging-

hoseand nrser rolled into one. I e-

asperation Helen ampbel wondered in

the 890s whin all this smooth

and rshing stream of progress the hose-

hold whees still creak so noisil and t

so hard. It is as thogh some primeval o

cart were broght in to connect with the

6 Itodcto

railroad sstemor the crrent of tran-

continental travel left its vestibed trains

to rd some river on the wa. har

lotte erkins Gilman criticized domesticbackwardness even more sharpl in 90 :

B what artwhat charmwhat miracle

has the twentieth centr preserved alv

the prehistoric sqaw!

Materia feminists believed that the soli-

tar hosewife doing her ironing or miing

dogh .7 cold never compete with the

grops o workers emploed in wel

eqipped commercial landries or hotel

kitchens (8 9 beginning in the 870s

Neither cod the isolated home competewith the technological and architectra

advantages oered b larger hosing com

pees introdced abot the same time.

Since man ilstrated newspapers and

magazines featred stories abot transpor-

tation technoogarchitectreand domes-

tic techologmaterial minists saw these

pbications as evidence of both rban and

domestic evotion.Joalists hailed a

pnematic ndergrond train in New York

in 870; the marveled at the developmentof eectric streetlights and indoor home

lighting in New York in 879; the

codnt sa enogh abot the rst electric

streetcar in ichmod in 888 or the rst

sbwa in Boston i 897This transporta

tion technoog encoraged land specla-

tion throgh mltisto residential co-

strction near sbwa and streetcar stops

Mltisto hosing aso minimized epen-

sive tilit lines r gaswaterand elec-

tricit. Domestic technolog spported

increased residential densities as well De

vices sch as elevatorsimproved gas

stovesgas reigeratorseectric sction

vacm ceanersmechanical dishwashers

and steam washing machines which weredesigned r se in large enterprises sch as

hotelsrestaratsand commercia an

dries cod also be sed in arge apart

met hoses.

Becase this technolog was rst devel-

oped at the scale sitable r ft to ve

hndred peopean grop interested in

mechanizing domestic work simp had

rst to socialize itand pa r colective

domestic cosmption b organizing

hosehods into larger grops inhabitingapartment hotesapartment hosesmode

tenementsadjoining row hosesmode

sbrbsor new towns What was niqe

abot the material feminists was not their

iterest in these technologica and architec-

tral qestioswhich also attracted inven-

torsarchitectsplannersspeclatorsand

ecienc epertsbt their isistence that

these economic and spatial changes shold

take pace nder womens cotrol.

he material feminists assertion that

women mst control the socialization of

domestic work and child care attacked tra-

ditiona conceptions of womans sphere

economicallarchitectraand social

First came demands r hosewives wages

sch as Melsina Fa eirce articlated:

t is one of the cherished dogmas of the

ode ladthat she mst not do an

thig r pa; and this miserabe prejdice

seseless conventionalit is at this mo

et the worst obstacle in the wa of femi

ine talent and energ Let the co

7 he Gad Dometc Revolto

operative hosekeepers demolish it rever

b declaring that it is jst as necessar and

st as honorable r a wife to earn mone

as it is r her hsband. . De-mands r workers nets and limitation

of hors alwas accompanied demands r

wages to nderline the hosewis crrent

stats as an eploited worker For eampe

Marie Brown in an article r h Rvou

on compained that men cold rest at the

end o the da while hosewives work was

nceasing.

Material feminists proposals also de-

manded the transrmation of the private

domestic workplacethe kithenin accord-ace with theories of domestic evoltion

Shall the private kitchen be aboished? It

has a revoltionar sondjst as once

pon a time revoltion sonded in sch

propositions as these: Shod private wells

be aboished? Shall private kerosene lamps

be aboished? Shall home spinninghome

weavinghome stitching of shirtshome

sotsoap making be abolished? Zona Gale

concded that the private kitchen mst

go the wa of the spinning wheelof which

it is the contempora n the same

spiritAda Ma Krecker had written r

Emma Godmans anarchist jornalMoh

Eah of the consolidation of home on a

large scae: The same rces that have

bilt trsts to spersede with measreless

speriorit the mriad pett establishments

which the have spersededwil bild the

big dweling paces and plagronds and

nrseries r tomorrows chidren and make

them measrelessl better tted to or so

cialized ideals of tomorrow than col


12/17

Caolne Howad Glman The HuekeeperAnnual and Lady' Regter 844 ontpece l utatng the ound o ta n "woman phee

18 Wo men woe n a commecal laundyung eveng otay wahe a centgal extacto teamheated mangle and a otayone colla and ht advetement 1883aundy wo wa uually hot wet and unpeaant even wth thee machne but eae than the houewe tugge wth tuband aton Fom Seged Gedon Mechaniza-tin Take Cmmand

19 Woe n hote tchen wth pecal pepaaton aea vegetable meat and patyNew Yrk Dai Graphic Apl 3 88 Suchtchen wee equpped wth pecal tove ette and othe type o coong appaatu unavalabe to houewve


13/17


14/17

feminist rermers who tackled housewives

pay had a terrible knot of preudices to un-

tangle concerning what was caled the serv-

ant question hey saw the problems mostclearly in terms of gender discrimination

Athough they were not always successl

they also tried to dea with cass and race

Eary material feminist rermers took the

stance that because srvants were scarce

unreliabe unskiled and lazy housewives

would have to band together to socialize

domestic work and organie both them

selves and their rmer servants in the

process As their movement deveoped the

eaders came to a more compex under-standing of the exploitation servants had

endured and of the racism and sexism

which prohibited young black womn om

hoding ther obs Nevertheless the gap

between the servant and the feminist re-

frmer was so great that often rermers

did not recognie the roe cass and race

payed in their assumptions about how to

socialize domestic workSome of the most

dedicated apostles of socialized domestic

work were not above titling artices a sou-

tion or an answer to the sevant question

if they thought that this woud increase

their audience However such titles often

distracted om their more basic message

about economic independence r a

women and conused their work with that

of uppermiddleclass women whose only

concern was maintaining domestic service

in their own homes

22 Intoduction

The Suburban Retreat

During the years fom 890 to 92 0 while

materia feminists (and the suragists so

cialists architects, and urban panners whoagreed with them )were panning and

creating housing with cilities fr social

ied domestic work an antithetical move-

ment was beginning to gather momentum

Between 92 0 and 970, this movement

woud utimately reverse urban densities

and deemphasize architectural and techno

ogica innovation t was the consoidation

of cpia through corporte mergers and

conquests that resulted in the rmation of

arger corporate empires typical of advanced (or monopoy )capitaism his eco

nomic transfrmation aected both urban

space and domestic space after 920 he

economist David Gordon has argued that

as what he cals the corporate city emerged

fom the industria city corporate manage

ment was spit om industrial prodution

Districts of corporate headquartes ap

peared in some key cities housed in sky

scrapers alongside banks and inteational

trading ciities Meanwhie industria

production was relocated at scattered sites

in suburban areas Gordon argues that the

reocation of ctories was often motivated

by desire to end labor unrest because some

corporations believed that they woud ex-

perience fewer strikes if they moved their

workers away om urban tenement dis-

tricts where the "contagion of radical

trade union activity could spread

Such moves invoved a new concern r

workers housing on the part of prevousy

unconcerned empoyesGordon Babara

Ehrenreich and Deirdre Engish and Stu-

art Ewen have observed that corporations

began to support suburban home owner

ship in the ate teens r skiled white

ale workers as a way of "stering a sta

be and conservative poitical habit

his tendency was conrmed in Herbert

Hoovers Nationa Conference on Home

Buiding and Home wneship convened

in 9 to support home ownership r

en of sound character and industrious

hbits and provide a ongtem pogram

r economic recovery om the Depression

Buiders bankers and manuctures

agreed that the type of home they wishedto promote was the singemiy suburban

house on its own ot Whie its exterior

ight reect changing styes the interior

organization of spaces replicated the Victo-

rian homes which had been presented to

Americans r amost a centur with mora

essages about respectabiity consump-

tion and female domesticity

Campaigns r mae home ownership be-

tween the 920s and the 960s contained

the pan (agreed to by both employers andany mae trade unionists ) that the male

woud be paid miy wages and that

women would be kept out of the paid work

rce and woud be ultime unpaid

housewives and mothers Stuart Ewen has

anayzed this strategy as promoting "the

patriarch as wage save o dislodge

any women fom paid obs in the 92 0s

and 9 0s conservative advocates of home

ownership and miy wages attacked all

feinists indiscriminateyhey were par-ticuarly hard on materia feminists

23 The Grand Domes Rvoluton

attacking "feeoveism "unnatural moth-

erhood and "futurist babyraising as

consequences of womens economic inde

pendence hey used the rhetoric of the

880s to deplore the "social hotbeds of

apartment hotes and boarding cubs

where the fmily "an institution of God

was thought to be undermined because

women did not do their own housework in

these environments

he development of suburban home

ownersip as the national housing poicy in

the United States oered a postWord

War idea to a postWorld War society

Goernmentsponsored morgages and taxdeductions r home owners in the post

Word War era defeated feminists but

provided a great boon to speculative

buiders appiance manucturers and

automobie manucturersAs women were

eected om wartime obs they moved into

suburban married life and the birth rate

rose ( 0 )aong with mass consumption

Builders created millions of singemiy

houses that did not invove care site

panning provision of community space orany design input om architects hese

houses were bare boxes to be lled up with

massproduced commodities

Beginning in the 920s appiance manu

cturers had miniaturized the largescae

technoogy deveoped earlier r hotels and

restaurants and used by cooperative house-

keeping societiesn their pace came smal

reigerators and feezers sma vacuum

ceaners sma dishwashers sma clothes

washers n the case of labor saving deviceswhich had been architectura such as


15/17

80 82 840 860

24 Introduction

880 1900 9 9 980

1.10 Tota fertility rate r whites 810-970,

showing the rising curve o the post-World War bay boom coinciding with suurbanizationand the rise of the "eminine mystique Sourceo ata: Daniel Scott Smith Family Limitaton Sxua Cnr, an Dmstic msm inVictorian America.

bultin compartments with brinelled

ppes r regeraton or buitin vacuum

systems r ceaning,both used in many

apartment hotels,the architectural ameni

tes we redeveloped as commodities

hich could be purchased and plugged in

n ths process of the domestication and

mniaturization of technoogy lay the seeds

of a uture energy crisis,because some ap

plance manucturers sold generating

eupment to muncipaities,a relatonshi

they could parlay into extra prots by de

sgnng appiances r maximum energy

consumption 33 Suburban home ownership

aso ncreased the demand r private auto-mobies Beginning in the 1920s,and con

tnung n the 19 40s and 1950s,advertising

beame a major Amerian indust,pro-

motng appliances,cars,and a sorts or

products in the setting of the suburban

dream house " 34

By the 196 0s,the suburban rings of cities

held a greater percentage of the national

urban population than the od city centers

By the 1970s,there were fty milon smal

houses and over one hundred million carseven out of ten househods ved n single-

miy homes Over three quarters of AFL-

CO members owned their homes on long

mortgages3 For women,natonal polices

supportng suburban home ownership (and

consumer credit )r men meant that

omens access to housng had to be

through the r husbands. Women's access to

pad employment was also mited by their

suburban locaton,because women were

ess likey than men to own cars and had

dcuty arrangng child care in suburban

25 The Gran Domestic Revotion

tracts with no community fclities. While

haf of the married women in the Unted

States were in paid employment by the

md 1970s,they continued to have a sec-

ond job at home All homemakers,espe

cialy the ones wthout outside employ-

ment,experienced what Betty Friedan had

caled the feminne mystique and Peter

Filene renamed the domestc mystique 36

because men experienced it as wel as

women,abeit in a dierent way

Fredan and Filene considered the femi

nne mystique to be more of a socal than a

spatal problem,yet the design of domestic

space deed al archtectura and techno-logical ratonaty By the 1970s,entire ur-

ban regions had been transrmed nto

mes and mles of suburban sprawl in

deance of earlier notions of urban evou-

tion and human progress Yet earlier,at

the end of the nineteenth century,advo-

cates of urban evolution had marveled at

industrial socetys progression om the

simple to the complex " In the 192 0s,ad-

vanced captalism turned this progression

around,as the technicaly and spatiallycompex urban dwelling was replaced by

the cruder suburban dwelling with

twentethcentu water,gas,and electrcal

supples The hidden costs of this domestic

retreat were so hgh that by the 1970s,n-

creasingy hazardous power sources such as

nuclear power pants,iquid natura gas,

and attenuated oil pipenes were intro-

duced to meet the steadily rising demand

r energy and the term dream house"

began to have ronic overtones

Builders and ndustrialists in the 1970s

contnued to gorfy the Vctorian home


16/17

26 Irduct

they had preserved a century eyond ts Mradescred her stuaton n he

tmethe solated household desned Womn's Room she was economcally and

around the deal of woman as ltme spaty dented wth the house her hus

homemaker They used mass meda to lo and owned She felt ouht and padrfy ths accompshment as proress and to rand t was all of a pece; the housethe

edde the housewfe ( Over a cen urnturesheall were hst sad so on

tury and a halfthe content of housework some pece of par 4 For the housewfehad chaned untl tme spent n the con

sumpton of manuctured products nearly

equaled the tme spent n cookncean-

nand chld care. Stl the housew

worked alone and her work was never

who reeledthere was an ncreasn rel

ance on psychatry and on drusDoctors

prescred Vaum and rum over 7

mllon tmes r Unted States women n

978 and dru company advertsements of

done: tme udet stud n the Unted ten showed a ownn housewfe wth

States and other ndustralzed countres apronrmand chldOne such ad

show that the housewfes hours of work n read "You cant chane her envronmentcreased rather than decreased after the ut you can chane her mood 4192 0sdespte laorsavn devces and

commercal servces Fast od anchses The Le

ga

yf Matea Femnsm

provded hot meas; televson served to

keep chdren quet at home; housewves

had dozens of electrc appances n ther

ktchens; yet they were less n control of

womans sphere than they had en at the

ennn of ndustral captalsmCaptal-

sm had socalzed only those aspects of

household work that could e replaced y

protae commodtes or servcesand left

the cookncleannand nurturn r

the housewfe

The home was not consdered a work

pace ut a retreat the housewfes unpad

solated laor was stll not consdered work

ut consumpton Women who dd ths

lonely work were amost never called work-

ersAs Medth Tax wrote aout the

housewfes day n 970 I seem to e n

volved n some mysterous process A s

Marlyn Frenchs suuran housew

Matera femnsts acheved ther reatest

nuence when stratees r housn

Amercans n dense uran nehorhoods

were popular; ther nuence wand as e

cent consumpton was denednot as the

careul use of scarce resourcesut as the

maxmum demand r massproduced

commodtes. Althouh the dense uran

envronments of ndustra captalsm ult-

mately ave way to an artcal prvatsm

n the Unted Statesand workers suur-

an hatatons proved that Fourer and

OlmstedMarx and EnelsBellamy and

Glman had msjuded the pace at whch

the uran concentraton caused y ndus

tral captalsm was hastenn salsm

and womens leratonthe deates they

ean have not yet en nshed In the

ast ten years many of the same questons

aout womens domestc roes and the

11 wg hugh sprg cleag whAjax adveseme d Hekpg Apr

196 A surreal vs the hme wkpacehwg dmestc mache a garde setgad suggesg tha husewr s pay bhthemes typca f he dmestc mystque thept-Wrld War II era

27 he Gad Dmestc Revlut


17/17

arger economy that the materia emi-

nists raised are once again beng asked, but

the importance o the design o housing

and the organizaton o neighborhoods rthese issues has argey been rgotten

Most miies continue to inhabit single-

miy housng desgned around the idea

o woman as ltme homemaker As

womens partcipation n the paid abor

rce continues to rse women and men

come to suspect the concts that outdated

rms o housng and nadequate commu-

nty servces create r them and their

mies; yet t s dcult to magine a-

ternatves t requires a spatial maginationto understand that urban regons designed

r inequality cannot be changed by new

roes in the lives o indviduals

he materia emnist egacy can stimu-

late that spatia imagnation by providing

emnist vsions o other ways to lve: thou-

sands o women and men who supported

socalized domestic work demonstrated

their socia and technca ingenuity. Mate-

ra emnists steady argued r emale au-

tonomy among sociaists and r women's

economic and spatial needs among sura-

gsts They recogned housewives as a ma

jor, potentia potca rce Their ability

to imagine more satisying eminist do-

mestc andscapes set them apart om the

more pragmatc, but less visiona re-

rmers o the era o industra captaism

heir debates about where and how to so-

ciaize domestc work reverberated with in-

tense emotions

An egatarian approach to domestic

work requres complex decsons about na

28 Introducion

tiona standards versus oca contro, about

genera adult participation versus ecient

specialization, about individua choice ver

sus socal responsibiity These same diem-mas, appied to industia production, have

bedevled al societies snce the ndustrial

Revoluton, so a societies can earn fom

these debates Any socialist minist so-

cety o the uture wil nd sociaizng do-

mestic work at the hear o its concerns,

and, along wth it, the probem o eedom

versus contro r the indivdua, the m-

ily the communty and the nation

When matera emnists deveoped ther

batte pan r the grand domestc revouton they establshed their sgnicance not

ony as visonares but also as social critics

Materal mnists resisted the poite con-

ventons o day ie under ndustria capi-

talism more eectivey than any other

poitica group o their era socialist

anarchst or suragist By mocking omes-

tc petes and demanding remuneraton

r housework they shocked both women

and men into anayzing their households

and their neighborhoods with a crtcal

conscousness that has not been matched

since. When, at their most militant, the

materia emnists demanded that paid

workers perfrm a household tasks coec-

tvely n welequipped neighborhoo

kitchens, laundres, and chid care centers,

they caled r architects to deveop new

types o housing and r panners to create

new knds o community cilities, giving

these proessions a human mportance long

snce ost by architects workng r specula-

tive buders or panners n the zoning bu

reaucracy he matera emnists argued

r these transfrmatons at every poltica

level, om th househod and the neigh

borhood to he muncipaity and the nation, setting an exape fr others who

might wish t unite such dverse issues as

housework, discrimnaton aganst women

n employment, housing poicy, and energy

pocy

Materal eminsts dared to imagne

womens economic independence om men

and to pan r the compete envronmen

tal and technoogical changes such nde-

pendence mpled. Were these utopian

magnngs and etravagant plans? AsLawrence Goodwyn observes in his history

o the American Populist movement, "I

te populaton s poiticaly resigned (be

leving the dogma o democracy on a

supercia pubic eve but not beieving it

prvatey) it becomes qute dicult r

peope to grasp the scope o popuar hopes

that were alve n an earler time when

democratic expectations were arger than

those peope permit themseves to have to-

day modern people are cuturay

programmed, as it were to concude that

mercan egaltarians such as the Populsts

were osh to have had such large demo

ratc hopes 42 It is easy to dismiss the

eonomc beration envisoned by matera

emnsts as oish much better to com

prehend their dreams, study ther anies-

tos and organzatons, and attempt to un-

estand those aspects o American cuture

tat nourshed their ideaism, ther hopesfr eminist homes neighborhoods, and

ties

29 Th Gand Domesi Revolution

the grand domestic revolution

Documents