The early 20th century was a time of significant change in domestic Interior spaces. In this period, Britain saw a vast improvement in the standard of living, despite having two great world wars occur and severe recessions. The transition from the Victorian to Edwardian times allowed many changes due to the development of gas and electrics, leading to new appliances becoming accessible for all classes gradually over the period in the 1900s. A space I believe in the 20th century that developed drastically was the kitchen, holding new appliances leading to new roles inside. The domestic kitchen is perceived as a predominantly female domain, being a women’s territory. Due to these changes, women’s roles were affected in the kitchen as the labor of many jobs regarding cooking and cleaning wasn’t needed. In this essay I will explore the development of modern kitchen appliances/fitted kitchens and whether this resulted in less housework for women, considering the theme of modernity. I will explore how this affected the identity of women, and explore the question: ‘Did the role of the housewife become easier?’.
The pace of domestic interior development in the 20th century was unstoppable. During the 1900s, the kitchen adapted to economic and societal changes, which embraced the advancements in technology, as well as style trends and family life. It was once seen as a service area only, separated from the social rooms of the house, becoming a versatile space for families to enjoy together. Before the Second World War, it was a rarity for anyone other than a woman to be seen in the kitchen. As it was considered a functional room, space was often extremely limited, looking utilitarian without aesthetics being the back room. The two world wars had a huge impact on the consumption of food, leading to the introduction of rationing. This only made the kitchen more of a place to functionally ‘fuel’ the family on barely anything, still keeping the design side to a bare minimum. After the war, many advancements were made due to the technology which was obtained through war efforts. Women gradually returned to work in their homes, which led to the desire for a better kitchen design. This is when the idea of the ‘fitted kitchen’ came into place; the idea of appliances becoming integrated within the cabinetry, creating a powerful transformation functionally and aesthetically.
In the early 20th century began to produce everything from cotton to steel, leading to mass-produced appliances for the kitchen finding their way into upper classes homes. Crucially, the cabinetry and the idea of fitted kitchens were produced in greater quantities being more affordable than ever before, allowing most homes to slowly introduce this change in their kitchen. One of the most popular storage units was the Hoosier cabinet, a space-saving unit that was known as a ‘kitchen piano’. The advert’s slogan – ‘Everything at her finger’s ends’ – sells the idea that the equipment and labor in the kitchen are in ‘hands reach’, making it much easier and more accessible for women to do their job. The Hoosier cabinet incorporated space-saving features such as upper and lower cabinetry, and in-cabinet storage spaces, and often featured a pullout work surface. Even though it wasn’t that large, it filled the storage void for the housewife, making jobs in the kitchen that much more efficient which is demonstrated in the image. A similar design to the Hoosier cabinet was the storage unit, which incorporates the storage of individual bins filled with rice, salt, tea, coffee, etc. The workflow within the space became much easier and gave the kitchen a place for a woman to have a sense of pride due to the cleanliness and neater decor. This was the beginning of the evolution of the 20th-century kitchen.
Towards the end of the 19th century and early part of the 20th century, manufacturers and industrialists took an interest in workplace efficiency, such as the kitchen for women. Business leaders were especially interested in increased productivity in the lead-up to the First World War, known as the Industrial Boom. It was said: “The idea of studying workers and their physical actions to assess economic efficiencies gradually filtered its way into the appliance and home design” (Reagan, A., 2015). The link between labor and design and the changes made minimized movement between these major kitchen tasks, meaning that the woman of the house could enjoy domestic work with greater ease. Reducing the number of steps required to move around the kitchen was novel and controversial. Fitted kitchens and the studies behind the structure of the kitchen decreasing movement were the starts of the debate behind whether the development in the kitchen made the job of the housewife easier.
In 1926, Austrian architect Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky designed the Frankfurt kitchen, with the design concept to enable efficient work, as well as being a low-cost build. It was known as a milestone in domestic architecture. The Frankfurt kitchen was a study in ergonomics that aimed to make kitchen tasks take shorter amounts of time. Multiple compartments and upper and lower cabinets created an assembly-line feel. The revolution of laying out the kitchen to make it more ergonomic and efficient for the homemaker eventually gave way to the ‘golden triangle’. The space was so small and accessible appliances and storage were within arms reach. Although this was a turning point in efficiency in the kitchen, the application of these principles made it become a lonely place for women being a ‘one worker’ space, due to the size. Everything was designed within arms reach, just like the Hoosier cabinet’s purpose, reducing steps. This diminished the social aspect and made the room purely for functioning purposes only, which caused controversy on the new designs and whether women actually preferred them like this. This also argued the fact that “the socializing aspect is central to the feeling of ‘homeliness’ in a kitchen” (Lloyd, J., Vasta, E., 2017, p.229). The new design of the kitchen, which was based around function, was a highly gendered project for the ways in which it sought to elevate women's knowledge and position in society. This was criticized due to standardizing women as one and not taking into consideration the differences in all women, such as working patterns, abilities, and family size, as well as bringing in the generalization that a woman’s natural work was in the kitchen.
Catharine Beecher, best known as a domestic economist, discussed the plans for the model home in the future, creating the theory that servants would be replaced with the most advanced technology. She also speaks on how women could improve domestic efficiency with this. Beecher quoted: “It is impossible for a conscientious woman to secure that peaceful mind and cheerful enjoyment of life which all should seek, who is constantly finding her duties jarring with each other, and much remaining undone, which she feels she ought to do. In consequence of this, there will be a secret uneasiness, which will throw a shade over the whole current of life, never to be removed, till she so efficiently defines and regulates her duties that she can fulfill them” (Beecher, C., 1869, p.175). This touches on the fact that if the housewife continued to carry out the same day-to-day jobs within the house, they would never progress.
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Domestic service in the first half of the 20th century had a compelling presence in British economic, cultural, and social life. Employment for women was at its highest of any labor market sector in Britain at the time, being servants working in other people’s houses. This led to relationships being built between the homeowner and servant, as they tended to live under the same roof. It was extremely common for the upper class to have a servant, due to the hard labor of maintenance in the house. This varied from cleaning and cooking to evening nannying – all at the same time. Although this was observed during the First World War, the decline of the servant in Britain was a slow process that was not really evident until after the Second World War, when electricity became present in most people’s homes. The decrease in servants was evident around post-war times, however not having a servant anymore in the home was never celebrated by the middle classes as a symbol of modernity. The servant wasn’t eliminated completely until the later 20th century, due to appliances still simply being non-affordable. The restriction of consumption was a dual problem of having no electricity supply, as well as the price. It was only after the Second World War that servants began to eventually decrease, although appliance companies were aware that until their products could achieve the dual function of fulfilling both practical and social needs, they would not replace the servant (Sparke, P., 1987, p.12).
Electrical appliances were invented with the idea of having your own ‘electrical servant’ being advertised as labor-saving replacements. The appliances weren’t initially intended to get rid of your servant, only to make working conditions easier by providing more efficient equipment. Once the possibility of electricity in the home was recognized, women began to discuss its future, uses arguing the general debate on if labor-saving actually saved time. “Many women were at the forefront of these labor-saving developments, as they were in a position to see the implications of these innovations” (Attfield, J., Kirkham, P., 1989, p.131). Middle-class women were eager to create organizations that debated how these new recourses were used, as well as the concern on how it would affect their economic and social impact. The Inglis advertisement, for instance, sells the idea of allowing women to be free of being the housework and the appliances doing all the work. The woman in the advert’s expression sells the dream of having free time, having a ‘holiday’, whilst still carrying out the housewives’ everyday chores. It also mentions the labor-saving idea of ‘saving steps, end’s ‘standing-by’’, and the fact that ‘you can enjoy the thrill of workless washdays without sacrificing economy and cleanliness’. The advertisements during the breakthrough of new electrical appliances can be seen as a form of propaganda, due to the misleading idea that ‘you’ll have more free time’.
The domestic role of women only became harder, as new expectations became present such as higher standards of cleanliness. This created even more housework, which in a sense kept the housewife in the home, not giving her free time at all. “Saved time should not only be used to educate and improve oneself to take a philanthropic role in the affairs of the community both socially and politically but even when one was already ‘electrically minded’ there was always more that could be learned and achieved” (Kyffin, E., 2011). This meant that women were always expected to be doing something else, as this is what they were ever used to, as a women’s work was always domestic. The hours gained, which were advertised as a time of leisure, were also seen as a time to carry out more domestic tasks, although of a different type to the domestic routines that were usually done day to day. It was suggested that women should spend the hours that were gained by electrification, creating homegrown produce, and cooking this themselves.
In organizations created by many upper-class women, feminist writers claimed that the mechanization of the housewife’s work has turned the role of the housewife into an alienated one (Sparke, P., 1987, p.12). Sparke suggests that the myth of the new woman freed by domestic appliances was essentially created by advertisers in the interwar period as a means of selling new appliances. As an example, an advert from 1952, with the slogan ‘You’ll have more free time with a McClary Kitchen’. It displays two women socializing, once again selling the idea of having free time instead of labor. The opening sentence states that the McClary appliances are designed to reduce work, give you more free time to bring you more beauty and convenience.
The controversy around the ‘labor saving’ myth led to the ideology of domestic labor to return to enclose production, it would be viewed as a waste of time that could be better spent doing something more pleasurable for herself. This means that due to the development in technology, there would be some mass-produced alternatives available for purchase. Some women denied the idea of labor-saving appliances and saw it as an opportunity to reclaim traditional skills lost during industrialization. They also tried to shape the idea that domestic work could be more creative and fulfilling, making the domestic worker more than just a machine minder. The new technology in the home appeared to enhance job satisfaction and task orientation, encouraging creativity through the use of food processors, blenders, and similar appliances in food service. “Due to the qualitative demands on the housewife were increased, and the dual notion of service arrived: the service performed by the machine for the housewife allowed the housewife to be more ready to service the family” (Kyffin, E., 2011). This again shows the ideology that the housewife’s job never became easier, only more expectations were made.
It could be argued that the design of the built-in kitchen was not just about changing the design for efficiency, but also about encouraging women to stay put. Due to the suffragette movement in the early 1900s, it was feared women would begin to find jobs outside the home, thus by changing the kitchen’s design and saving women the labor, they would stay where they ‘belonged’ in the eye of a man. Women’s domestic skills weren’t considered as an acceptance of social authority, instead were taken as an indication of their lack of ability, which affected their lack of ability in other social spheres.
To conclude, this essay has explored the ideology that the kitchen’s function over the 20th century evolved drastically, affecting the social aspect of a woman’s role, evaluating the concept that the housewife in fact did not become easier, only increased the expectations in regards to cleanliness and other tasks in the domestic space. The concept that the kitchen should be used for cooking was only part of the basic principle of modernity and typically the pragmatic approach to domestic management. Domestic service was not an old-fashioned or Victorian establishment, but it should be considered to be relatively modern, constantly redefined, and restructured as an absolutely vital feature of Britain in the 20th century. The kitchen today has been designed as not only functional but considered the main social space in the home. As opposed to kitchens in the early 20th century that were small and hidden, kitchens now have become much more open-planned, strategically placed within proximity to the living spaces, if not connected.
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