The new angel of home. Electrical appliances and advertising (1880-1960)
Abstract
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, a number ofintellectuals believed that electricitywas a key element for progress and modernity. There was also apocaliptyc visions: it was a danger tohealth and source of social imbalances. To overcome this resistance, electrical appliances manufacturersturned to the design and advertising. Advertising was spreading the idea that electricity was anatural and social achievement. In this context, the electrical appliances were understood as essentialtools for improving working conditions at home because the role of women in it had changed due tosome transformations that began in the nineteenth century: the influence of theories of domesticeconomy, the «servant problem», the idealization of the nuclear family and, later, the ideas about hygiene and scientific management in the home.
Advertising benefit from these ideas to make the electrical appliances an expression of status andmodernity but also to present them as the new angel of home, thus ignoring the real role of women inhousework.
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