Ruth Schwartz Cowan More Work for Mother - Article Example

Ruth Schwartz Cowan - More Work for Mother Introduction Technology was invented with the intention of decreasing the labor and saving time for human beings. Machines were designed to do the work in half the time. The invention of different machines created a drastic change in transportation, medical and communication field. However, technology was not able to make life easy on the personal front of human beings. It has not improved the life of a housewife. In fact, according to Ruth Cowan, the process of industrialization has created “more work for mother”. Initially, this claim seems false. However, after doing the research of studies and surveys conducted in different countries, it becomes evident that industrialization has not only increased the workload of housewives but has also created an emotional and social emptiness in their heart. Effects Of Industrialization With the process of industrialization, many products which were prepared at home started becoming available in market. Instead of preparing different things like candles, clothes and food items at home, women started buying it ready made from the market (Cowan 41). Before the industrialization, children and husband used to share the work of a housewife by chopping wood, shelling corn, pounding grains, making sausages etc (Cowan 46). However, the entry of cooking stove, automatic flour mill, and factory produced food in kitchen made the children (and husbands) to believe that the kitchen work has become very easy and hence, their mother does not need any help. Hence, instead of helping their mother in housework, children started treating house as a place for leisure (Cowan 46). This attitude forced the housewives to work alone in the kitchen and bear the burden of all the household responsibilities alone. Hence, instead of making life easier for a housewife, industrialization made her life miserable by throwing all the responsibility of housework work on her. Rather than preparing their own food and stitching their own clothes, people started buying them from the market (Cowan 48). The transition from being producers of the household items to consumers of the household items affected the way they led their lives. Instead of helping their wives at home, men had to visit the mills and the factories to buy the flour (Cowan 53). The bonding and the healthy interaction between the family members became scarce. Moreover, the household machines which were intended to make a housewife’s work easy started creating more problems for her. The use of stove increased housewife’s workload. Stove made it possible to change the range of fire during cooking. This made it possible for a cook to prepare different dishes as the stove allowed simmering, boiling and baking different food items without preheating. However, with this facility, the eating habits of the family changed as instead of having a one-dish meal, they started having a meal made of different dishes (Cowan 62). Husband and children started expecting variety in their meals. Hence, instead of decreasing the work of housewife, the responsibility of preparing many dishes increased her work (Cowan 62). Moreover, the stove had to be cleaned after every cooking session in order to avoid it from rusting (Cowan 62). Cleaning of the stove added an additional weight to the work burden of a housewife (Cowan 62). In this way, instead of making her life easier, the stove made a housewife’s life more difficult by adding more responsibility on her shoulders. The sad thing is that the technology invaded not only the kitchen but also other rooms of the house like drawing room, bedroom etc. Industrialization seeped into every aspect of household work like cleaning floor, washing clothes, cleaning the furniture, cooking, cleaning dishes etc (Cowan 63). The use of technology in doing the household chores drastically reduced the participation of men and children in doing the chores (Cowan 63). Laundry is one of those chores which women dread and finds very exhausting. The popularity of cotton fabric for making clothes was considered a part of industrialization (Cowan 65). Hence, with the popularity of cotton clothes, woman’s work multiplied as cotton fabric needs regular washing and ironing (Cowan 65). Children were not able to help her in washing clothes as rubbing, wringing, toting and ironing was laborious and exceedingly hard work (Cowan 65). Hence, with industrialization, women’s work not only doubled but also became very tiresome and laborious. Moreover, with the advent of hospitals and pills, the job of ‘caring’ was taken over by corporate world and women were left to do nothing but the mechanical work at home (Cowan 70). By 1950’s, the automobiles increased housewife’s workload. Housewives started performing the outdoor duties which were previously carried out by men. They started driving to stores, dropping and picking children from schools and classes, picking relatives from station and airport, taking children to their games, waiting in line for paying bills etc (Cowan 85). Hence, not even a single household technology ever contributed in unburdening a housewife of her responsibilities. In fact, it only added to her misery by increasing her duties and workload. Not only that, but it also affected the emotional and social aspect of a housewife as the advent of machines isolated her from the spheres of the family and the society and made her to work like a one-man army. Social Isolation According to Pacey (1983), the household machines were invented by men and hence, represent the male values of efficiency, materialism and rationality (Leto 171). The values of women, who were the primary operators of the household machines, were not given importance when the machines were being designed. Women wanted freedom from monotony and isolation, not an automatic machine which will make them more lonely and busy. A study by Ann Oakley revealed that women were tired of the monotonous and boring nature of their job (Leto 171). Their domestic duties never seemed to end and they found themselves lonely while doing these duties as no one in the family helped them in domestic work (Leto 171). Also, one of the most important things that Okley’s study revealed was that women found domestic work bearable if they had someone to talk to while doing the work (Leto 171). However, with the advent of household technology, the luxury of having a partner in household work was snatched from women. According to Oakley, instead of improving the social condition of women, technology has hampered it (Leto 171). The home appliances created by men are single operator machines and hence, it has imposed isolation on women (Leto 171). A set of 40 year time span study by Zimmerman (1988) has revealed that the dish washer saved twelve to thirty-seven minutes of housework time (Leto 171). However, the responsibility of operating these machines came solely upon housewives and the workload which was divided among the family members was being done single handedly by them (Leto 171). Moreover, even the time that is being saved is being spent in new responsibilities like looking after children’s studies, providing transportation, scheduling activities of family and maintaining the appliances (Leto 171). A study by Oakley (1974) has revealed a shocking truth that while urban housewives spent fifty-one hours in housework in 1929, the number of hours an urban housewife spent in housework in 1945 was seventy-eight to eighty-one hours (Leto 171). This shows that instead of unburdening a housewife of her housework drudgery, the household technology has increased her workload and responsibilities. The worst thing is that, this scenario is observed not only in the United States but all over the world. A statistical study of the data collected from 1961 to 1985 in the UK shows that the time spent by housewives in child care is increasing (Gershuny and Robinson 317). It was also found that the overall time spent in household work is decreasing (Gershuny and Robinson 317). However, the decrease is not because of the household appliances but because women are leaving their houses for a paid job (Gershuny and Robinson 317). This shows that women have to do the household work along with their paid jobs. There is no way they can escape the responsibility of housework. A data of the survey in countries like Canada, Denmark, Norway and Holland revealed the similar scenario (Gershuny and Robinson 319). The studies conducted across decades show that women in all these countries spend an average 214 minutes in housework while men spend only 27 minutes (Gershuny and Robinson 319). Also, the presence of children in the family has no effect on the housework time of men, while women with children have to spend more than average time in housework as she is held responsible for all the work related to child care (Gershuny and Robinson 317). With the advent of technology, it was believed that women will be free to go out and pursue their careers. With mounting prices, having a two income family had become a necessity (Calabrese 171). Hence, the pressure of household work and the pressure to contribute to the family income took its toll on women. The pressure to handle both, the household work and the paid job, made women in the UK to accept the home-based job of telework (Calabrese 171). A study by Barrett and Mcintosh (1982) revealed that the paid job done by housewives saved many families from falling below the poverty live (Calabrese 171). Unfortunately, the efforts of women were never recognized. No one cared to show any appreciation towards the unending hard work that the women were doing. Salomon and Salomon (1984) observed that working from home increased the conflict in women as they were overwhelmed with performing the duties of a wife, mother, employee and daughter-in-law (Calabrese 175). The expectation of the society makes women to try to achieve the impossible task of being the best mother, best wife, best daughter-in-law and a best professional (Calabrese 175). She falls in the trap of social expectations and forgets that the household work that she is doing is as important as the work her husband is doing outside the house. Moreover, the loneliness of the household work makes her feel isolated from the society. Statistics show that there was a drastic decrease in the household servants from 1930 (“Material Culture” 230). From 1,851,000 in 1910, the number of persons employed in household service dropped to 1,411,000 in 1920 in the US (“Material Culture” 230). As the time passed, the responsibility of doing all the housework started falling on housewife’s shoulders. Her communication pattern changed as with the disappearance of household servants, she had no one to talk to or share her emotions with. With the disappearance of maids, she lost ‘friends’ with whom she had been sharing her deepest feelings and thoughts. Moreover, with industrialization, every member of the family became autonomous and started having a ‘private’ space in the family (Leto 172). In pre-industrial times, the housewives enjoyed female companionship in their daughters, sisters, maids and mothers (Leto 172). However, the advent of single operator household machines changed all this. The household appliances like dish washer and washing machine are immobile and designed in such a way that they have to be stored in a corner (Leto 173). Moreover, the noise of these machines makes conversation in kitchen impossible (Leto 173). The healthy practice of spending time with children after dinner while washing dishes or cleaning the table has come to the halt (Leto 173). The intimate discussions that children had with their mothers are no more possible as the space in the kitchen has become limited to service area and children find it irritating to be in the kitchen when the dish washer is running (Leto 173). In this way, housewives feel isolated from their husbands and children (Leto 173). Housewives have become more lonely and depressed. Conclusion The advent of technology has worked negatively for women. Ruth Cowan’s claim that industrialization process in America has resulted in “more work for mother” is true. The technology has not only increased her workload but has also affected the emotional and social health of a housewife as the entry of household appliances has created an emotional distance between her and the family. Technology has disturbed the happiness of women in two ways. The responsibility of doing the housework has come solely upon her and she has lost the ‘friends’ and ‘companions’ in house servants and maids. It is true that the time spent in household work has decreased for women, but not because of the technology but because her time has restructured between indoor and outdoor duties. Now, instead of doing just the household work, housewives have to do the additional duties which were previously done by their husbands. Hence, Ruth Cowan’s claim that industrialization process in America has resulted in “more work for mother” is true to the core. Works Cited Calabrese, Andrew. Women and Technology. Ed. Urs Gattiker. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1994. Print. Cowan, Ruth. More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology from the Open Hearth to the Microwave. New York: Basic Books, 1983. Print. - - - Material Culture Studies in America: An Anthology. Ed. Thomas Schlereth. Lanham: Altamire Press, 1999. Print. Gershuny, Jonathan and John Robinson. The changing Nature of Work. Ed. Frank Ackerman et al. Washington: Island Press, 1998. Print. Leto, Victoria. Technology and Women’s Voices: keeping in Touch. Ed. Cheris Kramarae. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul Inc., 1988. Print. References O’Connor, K.J. (2000). The Play Therapy Primer. Danvers, MA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Rasmussen, L.A. & Cunningham, C. (1995). Focused Play Therapy and Non-Directive Play Therapy: Can they be Integrated? Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 4(1), 1-20. Ray, D.C., Armstrong, S.A., Warren, S.E. & Balkin, R. (2004). Play Therapy Practices among Elementary School Counselors. Personal School Counseling, 8(4), 360-365. Ray, D.C. (2008). Impact of play therapy on parent-child relationship stress at a mental health training setting. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling 36 (2), 165-187. Santacruz, I., Mendez, F.J. & Sanchez-Meca, J. (2006). Play Therapy applied by Parents for Children with Darkness Phobia: Comparison of Two Programs. Child & Family Behavior Therapy, 28(1), 19-35. White, J. & Allers, C.T. (1994). Play Therapy with abused Children: A Review of the Literature. Journal of counseling and Development,72, 390-394. Webb, N.B. (2007). Play Therapy with Children in Crisis: Individual, Group and Family Treatment. New York, NY: The Guilford Press. Read More