En husmoder ska vara tusenkonstnär : en kunskapshistorisk undersökning av hemmets rationalisering 1946–1956
(2024) HISS33 20241History
- Abstract
- A housewife of many trades: applying history of knowledge to the rationalization of the home in 1946–1956.
After World War II, Swedish women were expected to return to their work at home, due to a shortfall of work for men. However, to make housework more attractive for women, its status needed to increase. One way to make housework more appealing for women was to rationalize the home and therefore make the household chores more manageable for women. Working at home should be a real profession. The idea was also that some women should be able to combine housework with a wage-earning profession. The rationalization of the home was initiated by politicians, engineers, architects, scientists, housework teachers and housewives. In society at... (More) - A housewife of many trades: applying history of knowledge to the rationalization of the home in 1946–1956.
After World War II, Swedish women were expected to return to their work at home, due to a shortfall of work for men. However, to make housework more attractive for women, its status needed to increase. One way to make housework more appealing for women was to rationalize the home and therefore make the household chores more manageable for women. Working at home should be a real profession. The idea was also that some women should be able to combine housework with a wage-earning profession. The rationalization of the home was initiated by politicians, engineers, architects, scientists, housework teachers and housewives. In society at this time, many believed that industrialization, modernization, and science should make the housework effective. The aim of this thesis is to explore how the rationalization of the Swedish home demanded new knowledge and how this knowledge circulated in society through different forms of media. To understand why this knowledge was only intended for women, two theoretical perspectives were combined: gender and history of knowledge. Firstly, the theory of gender contracts by Yvonne Hirdman was used. Secondly, different concepts on knowledge were used such as Johan Östling and David Larsson Heidenblad’s definition of knowledge and Peter Burke’s definition of authorities. The theoretical framework of this thesis was circulation of knowledge especially Philip Sarasin’s description of the concept. This gives a better understanding of how knowledge from different media circulated in society. One way to specify the term circulation is to use Östling and Heidenblad’s definition, which is called: societal circulation of knowledge, meaning that only the knowledge that had an impact in society at large should be studied. The primary source material for this study was HFI-meddelanden which was a scientific magazine, Husmoderns köksalmanack which was a cookbook and Aktiv Hushållning which was both a booklet and a flyer. In this study these types of media were compared to be able to conclude which type of knowledge was important to the rationalization of the home. I also investigate how the scientific knowledge from HFI-meddelanden was made popular and commercial in Husmoderns köksalmanack and Aktiv Hushållning. This study demonstrates that women had to manage many roles and therefore needed to be aware of different forms of knowledge. I have defined three categories of knowledge that were important for women: how to be able to work both at home and in the labour market, which way they should use and take care of technology for the home and knowledge about certain food and nutrition. HFI-meddelanden and Aktiv Hushållning were government initiatives and were therefore more determined to maintain the gender contracts, which were integrated in Swedish politics at the time. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9170633
- author
- Wildt, Emma LU
- supervisor
-
- Emma Hilborn LU
- organization
- course
- HISS33 20241
- year
- 2024
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- History of knowledge, Cirkulation of knowlegde, Societal cirkulation of knowledge, Rationalization of the home, Housewifes, Gender, Media, Authorities, Women, Work, Food, Technology, Kunskapshistoria, Hemmets rationalisering, Husmödrar, Hemmens forskningsinstitut, Husmoderns köksalmanack, Aktiv Hushållning, HFI-meddelanden, Kunskap, Hemarbete, Husmoderskontraktet, Folkhemmets genuskontrakt, Auktoritet, Samhällelig kunskapscirkulation, Kvinnor
- language
- Swedish
- id
- 9170633
- date added to LUP
- 2024-08-27 09:22:46
- date last changed
- 2024-08-27 09:22:46
@misc{9170633,
abstract = {{A housewife of many trades: applying history of knowledge to the rationalization of the home in 1946–1956.
After World War II, Swedish women were expected to return to their work at home, due to a shortfall of work for men. However, to make housework more attractive for women, its status needed to increase. One way to make housework more appealing for women was to rationalize the home and therefore make the household chores more manageable for women. Working at home should be a real profession. The idea was also that some women should be able to combine housework with a wage-earning profession. The rationalization of the home was initiated by politicians, engineers, architects, scientists, housework teachers and housewives. In society at this time, many believed that industrialization, modernization, and science should make the housework effective. The aim of this thesis is to explore how the rationalization of the Swedish home demanded new knowledge and how this knowledge circulated in society through different forms of media. To understand why this knowledge was only intended for women, two theoretical perspectives were combined: gender and history of knowledge. Firstly, the theory of gender contracts by Yvonne Hirdman was used. Secondly, different concepts on knowledge were used such as Johan Östling and David Larsson Heidenblad’s definition of knowledge and Peter Burke’s definition of authorities. The theoretical framework of this thesis was circulation of knowledge especially Philip Sarasin’s description of the concept. This gives a better understanding of how knowledge from different media circulated in society. One way to specify the term circulation is to use Östling and Heidenblad’s definition, which is called: societal circulation of knowledge, meaning that only the knowledge that had an impact in society at large should be studied. The primary source material for this study was HFI-meddelanden which was a scientific magazine, Husmoderns köksalmanack which was a cookbook and Aktiv Hushållning which was both a booklet and a flyer. In this study these types of media were compared to be able to conclude which type of knowledge was important to the rationalization of the home. I also investigate how the scientific knowledge from HFI-meddelanden was made popular and commercial in Husmoderns köksalmanack and Aktiv Hushållning. This study demonstrates that women had to manage many roles and therefore needed to be aware of different forms of knowledge. I have defined three categories of knowledge that were important for women: how to be able to work both at home and in the labour market, which way they should use and take care of technology for the home and knowledge about certain food and nutrition. HFI-meddelanden and Aktiv Hushållning were government initiatives and were therefore more determined to maintain the gender contracts, which were integrated in Swedish politics at the time.}},
author = {{Wildt, Emma}},
language = {{swe}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{En husmoder ska vara tusenkonstnär : en kunskapshistorisk undersökning av hemmets rationalisering 1946–1956}},
year = {{2024}},
}