I was a little puzzled by Cowan's argument that innovations which would help alleviate housework have "failed". Also, obviously, houses have gotten bigger over time, and since it was seen as 'woman's work' to clean the houses, their jobs have become harder and more time consuming. But as coal and oil replaced wood for fires, that job started to disappear for men, while women still had to tend the fires, and sometimes their jobs got worse, as coal fires were smoky and messy. For example, men used to have to spend a lot of time gathering fuel for fires, felling and chopping up trees. I completely agree with what I thought was her basic argument- generally in American history over the last couple centuries, technological achievements have tended to eliminate "men's" household work but not "woman's" work. I enjoyed reading this book, but I was constantly wavering on whether I was on board with her arguments or not.
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