To mark International Women’s Day on Sunday, March 8, l’Osservatore Romano, the quasi-official newspaper of the Vatican, ran an article entitled, “The Washing Machine and the Liberation of Women: Put in the Detergent, Close the Lid and Relax,” Reuters reported.
The writer of the story in the Vatican paper, asked, “What in the 20th century did more to liberate Western women? The debate is heated. Some say the pill, some say abortion rights and some the right to work outside the home. Some, however, dare to go further: the washing machine.” (The writer is a woman.)
The article generated heated debate and a good dose of rancor—do a Web search for “Vatican and washing machine” or something related to get a taste of the vitriol.
A colleague, whose parents came to the U.S. from Italy and who lived there for six years, told me it’s important to remember where the story ran: “I think you have to understand the cultural context,” he said. “I’m assuming the writer is Italian, and in the Italian countryside until about 60 years ago, a lot of laundry got done in the rivers, and a lot of old women have arthritis from that. So the washing machine has been a particularly big deal for women in Italy.”
I’d argue that washing machines have had a huge impact on women and men, especially as modern versions evolved in the second half of the 20th century. And it’s not as if that newspaper story broke new ground with the notion that washing machines can be helpful to women. The image shown is an ad from 1910.
Still, most polls of male-female couples indicate that women do the laundry more than men do: The December 2007 Gallup Social Series Lifestyle poll of 594 married Americans reported that the wife is most likely to do the laundry (68 percent compared with 10 percent for the husband).
At my house, the traditional married-couple roles are a jumble: I do the food shopping and cooking and my wife handles the finances; but I do the yard work and my wife deals with the family calendar. All we care about is finishing the work, and if an appliance, computer, or some other tool can help us get the job done faster, than I’m all for it.—Steven H. Saltzman
Essential information: What device has had the biggest impact on your day-to-day life? Tell us by leaving a comment below. And if you’re in the market for a new washing machine, visit our product hub.
I have always maintained that God's greatest gifts to mankind are caller ID and the answering machine (i.e.: voice mail). Uninterrupted peace and quiet are priceless.
The washing machine, for sure!
When I taught adult education we had our students write essays to practice for the GED test. I will never forget one woman's essay on why the washing machine was the greatest invention. She grew up in a large very poor family of sharecroppers. Every laundry day one of the older girls had to miss school because her family not only used a big washtub outside they did not own a wringer. There was no way one person could wring out sheets and blankets. It took a person on each end. In summer, standing over the hot wash kettle was awful. In winter, their hands chapped terribly. I can remember my grandmother having a two tub washing machine. After the wash cycle she had to place the clothes one piece at a time into a roller wringer that orginally had to be hand cranked. The clothes then dropped into the rinse tub and after rinsing she would wring them again before hanging them out to dry. Even a hand cranked wringer was a vast improvement over my student's situation. Eventually, my grandmother's wringer was motorized. I think she appreciated that more than she did her first automatic washing machine. Early laundry soaps usually lye soap had to be grated and washing soda mixed in. I think it is almost impossible for people living with modern conveniences, not just washers and dryers, but easy to care for clothing to realize how much heavy labor was done and how many hours were spent washing, hanging, bringing in, sorting, starching and ironing clothing and linens at least once a week by most women well into the twentieth century. Several pioneers in the field of home economics pushed for families to send laundry out to commercial facilities as the single most important way to ease caring for a family. Much more important than part time hired help. When most clothing had to ironed that was usually what any household help spent the most time doing. Cleaning was second and helping prepare meals a distant third. My grandmother made her "own" spending money well into her seventies by taking in ironing. That would have been in the 1960s and 1970s
Posted by: mzrosemary |
the washing machine is one of the underaterated inventions ever made. only realized by the quality of the machine and the service they require. when they breakdown and you have to make friends at the laundry mat you realize immediatly that your going to get this fixed in a hurry.
servicing a washing machine is probably the most comprehensive and frustrating events i've ever gone through.
everyone knows how underated they are and i think everybody has been through the service dept. too
I have an top load Inglis heavy duty washer model 1a46500. I understand that the Inglis is now by Whirlpool. Anyway the machine started leaving lint on the clothing. The recommendations from Whirlpool was it will come out in the dryer. This is a problem if you try to use a outdoor clothes line. My research found that virtually all washers by Whirlpool this includes Inglis and Kenmore use an automatic lint filter. The lint filter is flushed by the washer during the rinse cycle. This works fine until soap and lint build-up in the lint filter and then the lint is not removed. To repair you need to remove the agitator and pull out the inner drum to access the lint filter. Also the lint can be a problem for the homeowners drain system especially if they use a septic field. The really dumb thing is that machines pre 1975 had lint filters on the top that you needed to clean after each wash thus not sending down the drain. In your testing you should look at this because it is a problem that will occur on older machines.
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