Priscila Lena Farias / Anna Calvera Marcos da Costa ... - Blucher

Domestic technologies and modernization of women in Chile between
1945 and 1970
ÁLVAREZ CASELLI, Pedro / Designer / Pontificia Universidad Católica de ChileMaster in History / PhD candidate / Pontificia Universidad
Católica de Chile
Gender / Modernization / Consumption / Advertising / Domestic
technologies
The present text forms part of research and recent publication
titled Domestic Mechanics that examines the modernization of
woman and home technologies in Chile between 1945 and 1970,
through the incorporation of new devices and domestic technologies.
In the proposed analysis, the common and uncommon
grounds that took place between these modernized goods and
the homemakers’ embracement of this “modern” essence were
raised, amidst a scene of productive rationalization of the home
during the twentieth century.
1. Introduction
The period 1945 and 1970 meant a key instance for the development
of an industrialization process and urbanization in the
country within the framework of an economic model of “inward
development”, that responded to the necessity to be inserted
in the new conditions of the world-wide economy of the West 1 .
Also, the consolidation of a culture of masses –that had been
foreshadowing since the decade of 1920’s– on par with an increasing
phenomenon of massive consumption in the cities
of greater industrial and commercial development, that began
strengthening from the second postwar period. This instance
caused unprecedented practices of consumption associated
to self-care, hygiene, eating habits and the introduction of new
technologies in the domestic field. As part of this modernizing
rise, home automation was comprised of two projects of greater
reach: at international level, the activation of the industry related
to technical advances of postwar period, and in our country, the
beginning of a policy of industrialization by substitution of imports
destined to internal consumption.
In this new postwar period scene, new social subjects had
greater roles associated with aspects such as rationalization of
production, modernization of the urban habitat and the communication
of masses, among other twentieth century practices.
The Chilean women, who conformed one of these social subjects,
constituted themselves as “objects” of modernization, as
a result of the changes that affected their previous ways of being
women in matters like education, the opening of new labor
spaces, administration of the family and home automation; and
1 This economic model sought to cement the basis of national modernization with
strong development in industrial infrastructure under the central role of the State,
through the replacement of imported products for locally manufactured ones.
However, this was a debilitating process, among other reasons because of the
increase of imports and dependence on technologies from Western nations.
at the same time in “subjects” of modernization, to the extent in
which they were acquiring conscience of their sexual gender and
their position within society.
Thus, the feminine conception of the period was associated
to one of a dynamic and practical home for work, that unlike
men’s work routine it had to take in an uninterrupted way, which
also implied the handling of a series of novel domestic devices
destined to the maintenance and rationalization of the family
space 2 . In this panorama of social, technical and cultural transformations,
the modernizing project of woman fueled by the
advertising practices, we will find a market of great importance
in the female demography when constituting itself as a decisive
agent in the election of modern goods and products for the family
and the home.
2. The new and unknown universe of
electrical appliances
During at least two thirds of the twentieth, the house was considered
like a metaphor of all that is feminine and in this space the
kitchen and dining room, were soon was defined like the main
stronghold of all domestic operations. This way, woman could
be represented through private field; referring to the concrete
space (the house) and to the activities of maintenance that were
developed (eating habits, childcare, cleaning) and the symbolic
space (the home) like a place of privacy, affection and protection.
The house operated then like a complex unit of management,
providing services and definition of social status, where
also the architectonic design of anything domestic reinforced
the particular qualities of each home.
The domestic interior like “modern space” was the result of the
manifestation of an industrial production system that it promoted,
on one hand, the improvement of the standards of life in habits
and customs, and on the other, structural modifications of the
home, such as the installation of potable water networks, pipes
and electric systems. Once advances of mechanization and hygiene
in the bathroom were introduced in the first decades of the
twentieth century, the transformations began moving towards
the kitchen service, especially as of the second postwar period,
moment at which development and massive impact of representations
of “living” and “living modern” took place. It is important to
clarify that it wasn’t a matter of simultaneous instances of crea-
2 In Chile some concepts of productive organization, like “standardization”, “rationalization”,
“fordism” and “taylorism” as possible ways of applying new plans of
industrial development for the pragmatic modernization of fabrics and materials
were already known since the decade of the 1930’s.
Design Frontiers: Territiories, Concepts, Technologies / Proceedings of the 8th Conference of the International Committee for
Design History & Design Studies - ICDHS 2012 / São Paulo, Brazil / © 2012 Blucher / ISBN 978-85-212-0692-7