More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology from the Open Hearth to the Microwave

Abstract

* An Introduction: Housework and Its Tools * Housewifery: Household Work and Household Tools under Pre-Industrial Conditions * The Invention of Housework: The Early Stages of Industrialization * Twentieth-Century Changes in Household Technology * The Roads Not Taken: Alternative Social and Technical Approaches to Housework * Household Technology and Household Work between 1900 and 1940 * The Postwar Years * Postscript: Less Work for Mother