Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?: American Women and the Kitchen in the Twentieth Century
Advancement of women's rights and equality of women in the contemporary workplace could not have happened without consistent progress in the practice, science, and technology of domestic management in the U.S. McFeely traces the evolution of domestic management from the first nineteenth-century cooperative societies, led by such luminaries as Zina Peirce and Charlotte Gilman. These schemes failed, but they set the stage for technological advances that finally loosed the chains of drudgery. McFeely makes a compelling account of the evolution of American attitudes toward food and its preparation from the privations of the Depression through World War II and into the explosive growth of processed foods during the last half of the century. She notes the irony of how each "liberating" technology added further expectations from the household manager. For example, the food processor may have produced labor savings, but it also created a demand that every kitchen produce foods just like Julia Child'sMark KnoblauchCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.