For decades now, our homes have been the stage for all manner of social transformations. First and foremost, it was modern appliances that impacted the way we live. Vacuum cleaners and washing machines eased the burden of housework, refrigerators, cookers and mixers changed how we eat, and radio and TV took up residence in our homes. Besides making food tastier and more varied – especially from the 1970s onwards – the new appliances also meant better informed and entertained households.
While these innovations changed everyday life in sometimes drastic ways, they often had surprisingly little impact on gender roles: men were still the breadwinners, returning home tired in the evening, while women took care of the children, cooked the meals and did the housework. Companies that made and sold these new devices, cheaply and in large numbers, also continued to target these stereotypes in their campaigns.
The exhibition draws on several collections of appliances to highlight the division that existed between men and women in the home. The long display unit at its centre consists of a shop-like display of appliances in their original packaging, which is unmistakably targeted at women. The displays on the horizontal units to the left and right of this are drawn in turn from two collections of televisions and hi-fi equipment: entertainment devices, which were still the preserve of the man of the house. Appliances for teenage bedrooms and the campsite are presented at the end of the gallery. These were products for a freer life, with a design which, for the first time, seemingly ignores whether the user was male or female.
For women
Many household appliances reinforced the notion of the ideal housewife. Homemakers in the 1950s and 60s aspired to be experts, equipped with the right tools. In the 1970s, by contrast, the kitchen emerged as a theatre of emancipation. Breakfast bars visually linked the open kitchen with the living room. Alternatively, depending on the political outlook of the residents, kitchens took on a nostalgic look, with French-style knickknacks or traditional oak cupboard doors. Coffeemakers in neutral brown or beige made their appearance. At the same time, there was a tidal wave of small and colourful appliances matched aesthetically to personal devices such as hairdryers, curlers and Ladyshaves. All these were part, as it were, of the housewife’s world, with both types intended to entice sales. Domestic appliances too were packaged as ideal birthday or Mother’s Day gifts for women.
For men
At first, domestic appliances were intended mainly for women. The advent of radio, by contrast, brought news and entertainment into the home with a device that was largely the preserve of the man. The 1970s witnessed a flood of new sound equipment, often including a record player and cassette deck alongside the radio, and all in glorious stereo. TVs had already arrived and before long they were being extended with remote controls and video recorders. Adverts mostly presented men as the users of these new home entertainment devices. Emerging Japanese brands played an especially important role in popular technical design and above all in the professional look of stereo equipment, which supposedly exerted a special appeal on male buyers and users.
A new species of human
The inexorable rise of the consumer society gave people more money and free time. Meanwhile, a new species of human had arrived on the scene: the teenager. The free surroundings of a campsite, for instance, created an opportunity to break away from the daily pattern of male and female activities. Radios and deluxe portable TVs with an almost festive design reflected the free and easy interaction and atmosphere of liberation.
For the first time in history, young people were given rooms of their own and a new youth culture was created on the back of transistor radios, record players, cassette recorders and sometimes TVs too. There were significant differences, of course, between the interests of boys and girls, as expressed in posters and other types of decoration. But when it came to audiovisual devices, in many cases the design was no longer geared specifically towards young men or women. This culminated in portable radios and tape-players by Sony and Philips, the design of which did not differentiate at all between boys and girls.
Credits
Men, women and their appliances
This exhibition has been sustainably designed, with the large display unit in the centre of the space almost entirely reused. The elements round it were manufactured by Cooloo from old mattresses and finished using a patented technique based on recycled leather waste, denim and olive pits.
Composition and texts Timo de Rijk
Project Assistant Anneloes Ebing
Spatial design Doepel Strijkers Architects, Rotterdam
Graphic work Kleefrdracht, Den Bosch
Lenders
Jaro Gielens, Düsseldorf the collection of electrical domestic appliances
Sjoerd van Beers, Rotterdam the collection of TVs and plastic audio equipment
Henri Baudet Instituut, TU Delft the collection of video recorders, video disc players and stereo equipment
The exhibition Men, women and their appliances would not have been possible without the energy and dedication of the aforementioned contributors and the ‘pro bono’ professionalism of Doepel Strijkers Architects. The Municipality of ’s-Hertogenbosch is Design Museum Den Bosch’s regular funding body.