stoking the hearth

also involves the procurement of those foodstuffs (by buying them or raising them), and their storage and prior preparation (by canning, salting, freezing, refrigerating, et cetera), the mainte- nance of the energy source (stoking the hearth, damping the stove, adding the coal) that is used to do the cooking, the mainte- nance and cleaning of the tools that are used to do the cooking, and the disposal of the waste that results from the process. Simi- larly, laundering is a matter not just of washing clothes but of moving them from place to place, of drying them, perhaps ironing them and putting them away, as well as acquiring the chemical agents-most notably soap and water-that will assist in the process. The concept of work process reminds us that housework (indeed, all work) is a series not simply of definable tasks but of definable tasks that are necessarily linked to one another: you cannot cook without an energy source, and you cannot launder without water. This concept also becomes important when we try to discover whether industrialization has made housework easier. We must ask not only whether one activity has been altered, but also whether the chain in which that activity is a link has been transformed. If, for example, we view cleaning rugs as work, then we might reasonably argue that this work can be done faster and with less expenditure of human energy with a vacuum cleaner instead of a broom. If, on the other hand, we view cleaning rugs as a work process, then we might see that it is composed of several activities (moving the instrument, moving the rugs, removing the accumulated dust, and so on), and that at least one of these (moving the instrument) is much harder to do with the vacuum cleaner than with the broom. In addition, if it is more likely that the presence of the vacuum cleaner will increase the frequency with which the work is done (once a week instead of once a season or once a year), or will involve fewer people in the work (for example, by releasing the stronger members of the household from the obligation to move the rugs outside, or the younger members from the obligation of beating them), then the question of whether cleaning a rug has been made easier or faster by the advent of vacuum cleaners becomes considerably more difficult to answer. Easier for whom? Faster for whom? Under what conditions? The history of housework studied in the light

7 ‘.I

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