Increase in number of working women due to appliance ownership, Notre Dame study shows | News | Notre Dame News | University of Notre Dame Liquid error: internal Skip To Content Skip To Navigation Skip To Search University of Notre Dame Notre Dame News Experts ND in the News Subscribe About Us Home Contact Search Menu Home › News › Increase in number of working women due to appliance ownership, Notre Dame study shows Increase in number of working women due to appliance ownership, Notre Dame study shows Published: January 19, 2011 Author: Liquid error: internal Even in the decade before the term “women’s lib” was a common phrase, the number of married women entering the workforce increased dramatically – thanks largely to washers, dryers and freezers, according to research from the University of Notre Dame. But “liberating” women from housework and propelling them into the workforce may not be the whole story, according to Steven Lugauer, a Notre Dame economist whose research was published recently in Labour Economics. Between 1960 and 1970, women’s labor force participation rates and households’ ownership of appliances both increased significantly – with the percentage of working married women increasing from 33 percent to 43 percent, and households owning washers, dryers and freezers increasing from 11 percent to 28 percent. (The number of single women working did not change appreciably from 1960 to 1970). Using U.S. census data from 1960 and 1970, Lugauer and colleagues explored the relationship between married women’s appliance ownership and their likelihood of entering the workforce. “Accepted wisdom had been that appliances in the house actually cause women to work more inside the home rather than liberating them to work outside the home,” Lugauer says, referring to a book titled “More Work for Mother” based on a famous economic study conducted in the 1980s on household appliances. Lugauer’s study has shown that not to be the case, and he uses the analogy of advances in the transportation industry over the last century to illustrate his point. “Air travel has become easier, car travel has become easier. We don’t spend less time traveling, we just travel to more places that are farther away,” he says. The same could be said for appliances and their effect on a household: Women wouldn’t necessarily spend less time on household chores because of appliances, but appliance ownership likely results in better results: a family having cleaner clothes or meals made more efficiently. “It’s not clear that women spend less time in the home just because the technology has gotten better,” Lugauer says. Contact: Professor Steven Lugauer, slugauer@nd.edu, 574-631-1432 Posted In: Research Home Experts ND in the News Subscribe About Us Related October 05, 2022 Astrophysicists find evidence for the presence of the first stars October 04, 2022 NIH awards $4 million grant to psychologists researching suicide prevention September 29, 2022 Notre Dame, Ukrainian Catholic University launch three new research grants September 27, 2022 Notre Dame, Trinity College Dublin engineers join to advance novel treatment for cystic fibrosis September 22, 2022 Climate-prepared countries are losing ground, latest ND-GAIN index shows For the Media Contact Office of Public Affairs and Communications Notre Dame News 500 Grace Hall Notre Dame, IN 46556 USA Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube Pinterest © 2022 University of Notre Dame Search Mobile App News Events Visit Accessibility Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube LinkedIn