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Looks like we've got a new contender for what contributed most to the emancipation of Western women in the 20th century. The Vatican said it was the washing machine; Bonnie countered with the pill. According to a new study, it was more basic than either of those: running water. Emanuela Cardia, an economics professor at the University of Montreal, used census data to study the effect of modern appliances and modern plumbing on women's foray into the workplace in the 20th century. She found that, more than electricity or refrigeration, it was the spread of indoor plumbing that was tied to women entering clerical and sales jobs. Cardia points to previous studies that found that more advanced innovations like the washing machine addressed chores that already may have been the job of hired laborers so had less of a direct impact than running water on the amount of time the woman of the house spent on housework.
In explaining her methods, Cardia writes, "The simplest model of home production assumes that ... men always work and women have one unit of time which they split among market work, housework and leisure." It may be the simplest, but as Emily wrote yesterday, there are a lot of more complicated models being forged now, as laid-off men navigate their new role in the home. I'll bet some of them are feeling pretty liberated by the washing machine these days, too.
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Thanks to a bunch of great e-mails from readers (you are a smart and articulate bunch), I posted a piece about the recession and its potentially deleterious effect on marriages. I've got a follow-up question: If your husband or wife has been laid off, or if you have, is that affecting how you and she or he divide up who picks up the kids, does the dishes, takes out the trash, pays the bills? Is the person who's newly staying home putting in more hours on what's known as the "second shift"—the time for domestic chores that working spouses put in at either end of the day? Traditionally, women have shouldered more of this burden. Even as their rates of full-time employment have risen, the time-use numbers showing that men do less around the house have stubbornly refused to budge. I wonder if this round of layoffs is changing that. Please send your stories to doublex.slate@gmail.com, and I look forward to hearing them. E-mail may be quoted in Slate unless the writer stipulates otherwise. If you want to be quoted anonymously, please let me know.
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