Post by violet on Mar 9, 2009 10:51:07 GMT 10
Have to say I don't agree with Betty Friedan's quote, but I do agree that the washing machine is one of my greatest allies in the household. From the online Sydney Morning Herald today:
The Vatican asks ... what role did the washing machine play in women's liberation?
The washing machine has had a greater liberating role for women than the pill, the official Vatican daily newspaper said in an International Women's Day commentary.
"The washing machine and the emancipation of women: put in the powder, close the lid and relax," said the headline on the article in Osservatore Romano.
"In the 20th cenutry, what contributed most to the emancipation of western women?" questioned the article.
"The debate is still open. Some say it was the pill, others the liberalisation of abortion, or being able to work outside the home. Others go even further: the washing machine," it added.
The long eulogy to the washing machine - for which the first rudimentary models appeared in the 18th century - highlighted "the sublime mystique to being able to 'change the sheets on the beds twice a week instead of once'," quoting the words of late American feminist Betty Friedan.
While the machines were at first unreliable, technology has developed so quickly that now there is "the image of the super woman, smiling, made-up and radiant among the appliances of her house", wrote Osservatore.
The Vatican asks ... what role did the washing machine play in women's liberation?
The washing machine has had a greater liberating role for women than the pill, the official Vatican daily newspaper said in an International Women's Day commentary.
"The washing machine and the emancipation of women: put in the powder, close the lid and relax," said the headline on the article in Osservatore Romano.
"In the 20th cenutry, what contributed most to the emancipation of western women?" questioned the article.
"The debate is still open. Some say it was the pill, others the liberalisation of abortion, or being able to work outside the home. Others go even further: the washing machine," it added.
The long eulogy to the washing machine - for which the first rudimentary models appeared in the 18th century - highlighted "the sublime mystique to being able to 'change the sheets on the beds twice a week instead of once'," quoting the words of late American feminist Betty Friedan.
While the machines were at first unreliable, technology has developed so quickly that now there is "the image of the super woman, smiling, made-up and radiant among the appliances of her house", wrote Osservatore.
