Anonymous, "Industrial Revolution and Home Technologies", contributed by Hillary Abraham, Center for Ethnography, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 3 December 2019, accessed 20 April 2024. http://www.centerforethnography.org/content/industrial-revolution-and-home-technologies
Critical Commentary
Throughout the 20th century, new technologies such as vacuum cleaners, washing machines, and refrigerators changed the nature of domestic labor. Rather than reduce the amount of work a task required, these technologies facilitated increases in living standards for about the same amount of work put in. Middle- and upper-middle class women became generalized workers, where they had previously supervised specialized workers.