The duality of gendered tech in domestic spaces: liberation or reinforcement?

Last week my washing machine broke, leaving a surmounting pile of dirty clothes within my direct eye line every time I lay in bed. It haunted me all week when I finally decided to handwash a few necessary items until the machine was fixed. 

I was immediately introduced to the time-consuming nature of handwashing your garments. Not only did the scolding hot water hurt my hands (even with gloves), but I had to let the items soak for an hour before rinsing them and hanging them up to dry. 

When I recounted this story to my eighty-three-year-old grandmother (Oma) and fifty-one-year-old mother, they chuckled. My Oma recounted how heavy and physically demanding the equipment used to be. She explained how grateful she was to have a washing machine when she immigrated to Canada because “it freed up her time.” My mom then piped in, saying that was probably one of many contributing factors to women being able to enter the workforce.

When approaching the topic of gendered technology in domestic spaces, I felt split between two frames of thought: household tech as liberation for women and, conversely, the reinforcement of traditional roles of women as the domestic keepers of the home.

The development of technology in domestic spaces has led to the convenient appliances we now think of as instrumental to the home: vacuum cleaners, refrigerators, televisions, microwaves, and washing and drying machines. By the twentieth century, women’s organizations promoted electrical appliances as sources of freedom from housework. Thus, the societal shift towards an automatic home contributed to an increase of women in the workforce. While there is no consensus on how much time was saved by these appliances, women’s housework has notably declined in the last 65 years. Additionally, the accessibility of these products due to global manufacturing increased to the point that these appliances became practically disposable, marking a significant change since the turn of the twentieth century. While domestic technology as a form of women's liberation should be celebrated, it also raises questions regarding the marketing and ideology behind these gendered technological advancements.

Women’s liberation through household tech should not absolve exploration into what gender roles domestic technology may reinforce. Though women’s housework has declined, there has been relatively no change in men’s contributions to household chores. One study found that women in the US still spend 1.5 more hours a day on unpaid housework than men. While technology in the home may lessen the divide in time spent on housework between men and women, it does not indicate that there has been an overall shift in responsibility. In the case of the washing machine, the task of laundry may be masked as an act of care or “labor of love.” The convenience of washing machines can also sometimes lead to hidden labor, mainly the cognitive work of managing, preparing, and helping out with those chores. Women may find themselves responsible not only for loading and unloading the machine but also for scheduling their day to fit in laundry, prioritizing what items need to be washed, then sorting, folding, and putting away the laundry, creating an ongoing, unseen workload. Thus, the burden of housework still falls on women.

While technological advancements liberated women from domestic life, a narrative of domesticity as tied to femininity persists through household technologies. With a dual understanding of the washing machine, I am left feeling grateful and unsettled: grateful for the modern appliances in my home that make my daily life easier but frustrated with the mental load of cognitive work I do within my household. Luckily, I have a thoughtful partner who shares chores like laundry. Still, I am left wondering what household technologies would look like if created for women, by women, from a feminist technoscience perspective. 

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What I learnt as a Digital Nomad and why I’m ready to be a Digital Homebody