Bad Press
Efficiency infiltrated the domestic sphere in the first years of the twentieth century. In 1913, soon after American engineer Frank Gilbreth improved the efficiency of bricklaying by minimizing a mason’s need to bend and stoop, the pioneering home economist Christine Frederick asked, “Didn’t I, with hundreds of women, stoop unnecessarily over kitchen tables, sinks and ironing boards, as bricklayers stoop over bricks?” Domestic efficiency found its modern spatial expression in Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky’s compact Frankfurt Kitchen (1926), designed to save time, space, money, and human energy. The drive toward household efficiency ushered in an army of new household appliances — so-called electric servants — that promised to liberate the housebound wife and enable her to join the labor force. But in practice, gains in efficiency only gave rise to greater domestic workloads.
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