A Holistic History of the Washing Machine
“Not least an issue of intersectional feminism, but one of human rights.” Examining how access to washing machines is key to making a global step forward.
By Hannah Kettles
As long as humankind has been wearing clothes, we have desired them to be clean. Teenage stereotypes aside, regularly washed garments are considered a basic part of hygienic living conditions which, not to be overlooked, are a universal human right. In this article, I’d like to take you on a whistle-stop tour of the washing machine in all it’s soapy history, to document our original dilemma, how the washing machine became the solution, and the reality of the disparity that we face now.
My recent research into washing machines was the first I can say I have ever done. From a collection of readings, I’ve been able to piece together that the crux of what we know as early-modern clothes washing methods began in the Middle East. In particular due to the ammonia that characterises Syrian grass. The inclusion of excessive amounts of ammonia in the grass meant it came to be known as the most desirable solvent, with the addition of water, to remove dirt from fabric which was, chiefly, simple and effective.
Simple and effective we might ask, for who?
Just after we started wearing clothes and just after we desired them to be clean, it has been women that have been delegated the role of washing them. Throughout global history we can track the development of the washhouse, not simply as a destination for completing errands, but as a social space. From Roman examples to a well-preserved, still-standing washhouse in Woolwich, South East London, these structures are a reliable reflection on the necessity of hygiene to the human condition. Yet, only half of the population (women) were known to inhabit them.
Due to the minutes, hours and days on end that washing would inevitably take from a woman, naturally there would become little room for much else and consequently this arduous task could come to characterise a lifetime. There are documented reports of particular songs sung while women washed clothes, stories spun and advice exchanged. Other instances where historically we see such familial working conditions sit in the factory work of the 19th century. Though, what remains paramount in the difference between these two scenarios is that while one was supplied an hourly rate the other, and remains so today, is entirely unpaid labour.
Perhaps a discussion to be saved for another article, but the perpetual cycle of women’s ‘menial’ work, the notion of women’s endless and mindless ‘ability’ to chat, and women’s perceived inferiority to men, peddled itself all the way into the late 20th and 21st centuries. However, things began to shift in the ‘Western’ world when second-wave feminism crashed into the US and the UK; women were now carving the right to hold non-domestic titles and, though still in the minority, working women found themselves too short on time in the day to spend upwards of 20 hours a week washing clothes. This crassly put ‘desire to do it all’ ignited a market for making tasks of the house and home effortless.
We see below an early colour advert from 1964. The tagline “My Washdays are Holidays Now” offers a gut punch of information regarding the scale of how much of a Western woman’s life was consumed with handwashing clothes. There is no doubt it was mentally and socially harmful and there is also plenty of evidence to prove the physical pain was extensive: raw hands, chronic back pain, torn skin.
The question that remains is, why are we in the UK more entitled to the luxury of a washing machine (where just 2% of the population were reported to live without one in 2018) than women living in poverty? Why must our skin go unbroken and our backs go un-aching? There is no reason and there is no room in modern, intersectional feminism for the ignorance of this inequality. The inability to acknowledge the harm caused to women carrying the duty of handwashing clothes, in turn stripping them of their time, agency and education, is not least a problem for intersectional feminism, but one of human rights.
The Washing Machine Project (TWMP), established in 2018, aims to save the time, efforts and livelihoods of those trapped in the confines of handwashing their clothes. The grassroots social enterprise does this through distributing their uniquely engineered, off-grid, manual washing machines, designed to be affordable and portable to make them accessible to those in need. Their current outreach extends to 10 countries, including two pilots in refugee camps in Iraq, with the support of Care International and Oxfam, and research in Lebanon, Uganda and The Philippines.
5 billion people worldwide do not have access to a washing machine and this stems from several root causes. The most obvious of these is financial constraints, which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when time is perpetually stolen from women working almost the hours of a full time job without compensation. Secondly, a lack of access to energy sources, which is answered by the creation of an ergonomic, manual machine, specifically one that is usable for the whole family. Last but not least, there is the ongoing crisis of severe water shortages, particularly in contexts like refugee and internal displacement camps: contexts in which TWMP’s intentions are heavily focused. Though there is so much to be done to aid those without access to clean water, TWMP’s equipment halves the amount needed for a 5kg clothes wash. This takes the water demand from 40 litres to just 20, which wash by wash can amount to a huge impact on an individual’s water preservation; the organisation aims to save over 1 million litres of water by the end of 2023.
The Washing Machine Project is growing but even the smallest of impacts from supporters like you and I can have a massive impact. It has never been easier nor more imperative to act on global change. Through donations, volunteer work or something as simple as conversation, you can raise awareness and make a huge difference to people’s lives.
“We know it. Now let’s change it.”
References:
Image:
Reading:
https://helpwiththewashing.co.uk/blog/a-brief-history-of-the-washing-machine/
https://thewashingmachineproject.org/our-mission
https://www.statista.com/statistics/289017/washing-machine-ownership-in-the-uk/
