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

Domestic technologies and modernization of women in Chile between 1945 and 1970
Figure 5 (left). Package of household cleaner, 1940 (National Institute of Industrial
Property, Inapi Chile).
Figure 6 (right). Photography Tricaloric kitchen model of the chilean company
Mademsa, 1964 (author archive).
Under the aegis of maximization of domestic tasks and the domestic
configuration of the home in its more modern expression,
all kinds of domestic equipment were introduced and promoted,
like mechanical extensions of the modern homeowner, at least
from the magical window offered by advertising announcements.
In such sense, it is possible to mention that Chilean advertisement
immediate to World War II not only emphasized the woman
but also household appliances like the main protagonist of the
announcements, emphasizing its technological and aesthetic
features in a more pedagogical way. And in some cases these
appliances are not the central argument of the message, but the
electricity whereupon they function; the important thing is not
that “she” understands the complex process of electrification, but
to state that it is a symbol of progress that will transform her into
“a modern” woman.
The appropriation of these new and unknown goods carried with
itself a series of new experiences, like the time and disposition to
assimilate the emotions that these new products generated, as
well as to understand and learn how they worked. Therefore, its
use and appropriation became a personal process and a subjective
experience that depended on certain rooted customs and the
disposition to accept new technologies and forms to inhabit the
domestic space. Like part of the universe of these new technological
appliances associated with woman, particularly the household
electric appliances meant an alteration in the perception of the
time and the amount of work and energy that was invested in
cleaning, organization and preparation of foods.
4. Conclusion
Although the changes especially introduced in the bathroom and
the kitchen allowed for time saving, mainly with respect to the
tasks of food storage and home cleaning, these new technologies
did not manage to modify in drastic way the domestic role of the
Chilean woman; on the contrary, the images and representations
of this technological modernity, emanating from diverse mass
media sources, urged women to spend more time in their traditional
domestic habitat, particularly in the kitchen.
Somehow, the transformation of these spaces and the arrival of
Figure 7 (left). Advertising company califonts Mademsa, 1969 (Paula Magazine).
Figure 8 (right). Announcement of new 11-foot refrigerator, 1965 (Saber comer y
vivir mejor magazine).
household electric appliances, helped to reinforce this dominant
ideology in urban homes and the mid-level income sectors: vacuum
cleaners, juicers, washing machines and refrigerators were
transformed into new forms of female subjection, although it not
necessarily meant an obligation or a pre-established norm for
married women. What at first sight appeared as a form to facilitate
the “natural” occupations of woman, in many cases it would
end up being transformed into a sort of prolongation of the female
body, indispensable for her daily activities and permanent object
of desire. Thus, the promise of liberation of these new appliances
proportionally progressed towards the increase of home standards,
situation that contributed to guarantee the flow of new consumer
goods, like part of a vast process of industrial modernization,
which incorporated in its production a more classic diffusion
of Capitalism values: saving time, money and effort.
Local advertisement, which revolved around a pseudoscientific
speech, appealing to a woman’s traditional role, made up with the
cosmetic effect of new technologies, outlined a profile of willful
and efficient females. For that reason, the access to consumption
and the possession of modern goods were a requirement to
accede to modernity. Although these visions, emanated from the
public sector towards the private sector, it influenced the decision
making and construct of an imaginary female associated with the
consumption, leisure and well-being of the family. This did not
imply that a homogenous mass of Chileans adhered to these representations
without restrictions, especially middle class women
that having reasonable access to consumer goods, worked and
could have maids or domestic service or work simultaneously
inside and outside the home. For these reasons, the pretension
that the domestic appliances carried out a fundamental role in
women’s liberation is somehow disproportionate if we consider
that, whereas it considers women “natural” users of these appliances,
instead of releasing them from their domestic role, when in
fact what they did was to reinforce it.
References
Álvarez Caselli, P. 2011. Mecánica Doméstica. Publicidad, modernización
de la mujer y tecnologías para el hogar, 1945-1970. Santiago: Ediciones
UC.
Design Frontiers: Territiories, Concepts, Technologies 527