Architects of households

Abstract

Historically, working as a housewife has been highly devalued, underappreciated and even ridiculed. Even today, women assuming domestic work are associated with a caring, motherly figure that provides physical and emotional shelter and creates a home. This housewife stereotype comes from rooted deeply in created by society’s gender norms and assigning to women the role of a “natural caregiver”, intersected by class hierarchy and racial biases. However, as argued by Maria Mies, the housewifisation process is a creation of economical strategies aimed at profit. In XX-century Poland, during the interwar and post-World War II period, women were orientated towards domestic labour, which resulted in preventing them from pursuing a career, including architecture. To become a housewife, women would not only rely on knowledge passed onto them from their mothers. Not only adult women, but even young girls in elementary schools were taking lessons to prepare them for the future role of a housewife, that is educated in the field of home economics, including management, finances, health and even architecture. The paradigms and ideology of scientific management lead to the establishment of Instytut Naukowej Organizacji [Institute of Scientific Management] in 1925 and Związek Pań Domowych [Housewives Association] in 1930, to promote and expand knowledge necessary for effective management of household equally amongst housewives of different experience and background. Based on archival information and documentation gathered from Biblioteka Raczyńskich [Raczyńskich Library] in Poznań, as well as literature review such as the journal Organizacja Gospodarstwa Domowego [Household Management] run by Housewives Association 1927-1939, this history thesis explores the strategies and processes standing behind the process of housewifization in the interwar period in Poland, to analyse the impact of the housewives on housing design between 1927-1935.