| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 106.1

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 106.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Comparative/World

Arwen P. Mohun. Steam Laundries: Gender, Technology, and Work in the United States and Great Britain, 1880–1940.. (Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology, new series, number 25.) Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 1999. Pp. x, 348. $48.00.

Arwen P. Mohun's claim that laundries are "good to think with" is borne out in this fascinating account of how and why laundry work became industrialized before returning again to the home. The history of the commercial steam laundry offers an alternative gendered perspective on industrialization by focusing on a small industry familiar to millions of women, even if they had no other experience of factories. Mohun investigates the role of the principal actors in the unfolding drama: consumers and laundry workers, business owners and reformers. The relative strength of these groupings shifted over time, in a web of overlapping and often conflictual relationships. 1

The early success of steam laundries relied on the fortuitous convergence of technological and cultural developments. With rapid urbanization, washing at home became increasingly arduous in the absence of piped water and clean drying space. Along with mechanized washing machines, water extractors, and flat irons, laundry owners also supplied clean water and drying at a time when cleanliness was assuming heightened social importance. As clean clothes and linen became a prerequisite for hygienic living and a marker of social status and morality, commercial laundries attracted numerous customers. Work previously done by women in the home was now commodified, undertaken by other women in quasi-industrial conditions. Owners sought to mechanize operations and to subdivide tasks (ironing remained obstinately resistant), and they allocated jobs on a strict gender basis. The workforce was seventy percent female, men being reserved for delivery, minding washing machines, and maintaining boilers. . . .

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