The Hoover® in the Garden: Middle-Class Women and Suburbanization, 1850–1920

Abstract

Between 1850 and 1920 the roles of women were dramatically transformed. As participation in public activities became more socially, politically, and economically feasible, changes in domestic life limited the ability of many middle-class women to take advantage of these opportunities. The three processes of suburbanization, growth of social mobility, and an industrial economy increasingly based on domestic consumption, including innovations in household technology, all had the potential to unburden and enrich women's lives. Interrelationships among the three processes, however, worked to the detriment of some middle-class women with limited financial resources. A structurationist perspective is used to examine the interrelationships between social processes that affected women and the responses of individual women to these processes. The role of ideology, which made it acceptable for some middle-class women to do domestic work in 1920, whereas the opposite was true in 1850, is singled out for special attention.