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A century ago most housewives were farm housewives. The housewife on a pre-electric, pre-running water farm could not have spent 60 hours/week on what is now "h
by Merrill 7y ago
A century ago most housewives were farm housewives. The housewife on a pre-electric, pre-running water farm could not have spent 60 hours/week on what is now "housework", since considerable time had to be devoted to caring for the chickens; collecting and packing eggs; planting, weeding, harvesting the garden; canning vegetables and fruits; helping with the milking; helping with butchering chickens, pigs, and steers; etc.
On the other hand, multi-generational households were common, maiden-aunts came to stay and help, and neighborhood girls could be hired when needed. Neighboring housewives helped out when the threshing crew arrived and a dozen hungry men had to be fed a good meal.
Baths were Saturday night and clothes were washed Mondays for the simple reason that greater frequency was impractical, since water had to be carried from the well and heated on the wood stove.
- onion2k 7y agoA century ago most housewives were farm housewives. You believe that in 1919, at the end of the first world war, and just 10 years before the Wall Street crash, most housewives lived on farms that didn't have electricity or running water? The population of New York city in 1919 was a little over 5.5 million people.
- wcunning 7y agoMore importantly, farming started out as the occupation of 90% of the population in the US and has been continuously falling ever since. The total number of farms grew up until about 1950, but as a share of the population it was only in the low 30% range at that time. Source: https://www.agclassroom.org/gan/timeline/farmers_land.htm https://www.agclassroom.org/gan/timeline/farmers_land.htm
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- Merrill 7y agoI stand corrected. The percentage in 1920 was about 30%. However, another large slice, probably over 20%, lived in rural small towns and villages where life wasn't much different. The Rural Electrification Act was signed in 1936. Before then, in 1930, only 3% of farms had electricity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_Electrification_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_Electrification_Act Electric motors are needed for inexpensive running water systems in order to drive pumps able to pressurize the system. There were gas engines used to drive pump jacks a couple decades before. There were also "Delco Plants" and batteries for local generation and DC electricity distribution on farms, but I don't think they were widespread. Mom's Maytag washing machine originally had a Briggs & Stratton gas engine that was replaced by an electric motor after REA was implemented. https://www.farmcollector.com/farm-shows/delco-light-plant-zmlz13janzbea https://www.farmcollector.com/farm-shows/delco-light-plant-z...
- bhandziuk 7y ago1919 is right on the cusp of when the US became majority urban. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urbanization_in_the_United_States#Historical_statistics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urbanization_in_the_United_Sta... And those people living outside the cities were unlikely to have electricity still "by the 1920s electricity was not delivered by power companies to rural areas because of the general belief that the infrastructure costs would not be recouped" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_electrification#The_United_States_of_America https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_electrification#The_Unit... I assume they did have some sort of running water in that they would have a well.