Household Technology: Was it the Engine of Liberation?

Home production has dramatically changed during the course of the 20th century and labor saving technologies, from running water to modern appliances, have reduced the time demands of home production. This paper uses 1940 and 1950 US Census data to assess the impact of the increased diffusion of plumbing facilities and modern refrigeration (which presence nearly doubled during the decade) on female labor market supply and occupational choices. It finds that increased female labor force participation rates are strongly correlated with the increased adoption of indoor plumbing facilities but not with the increased adoption of modern refrigerators. For counties in the South however, there is a positive correlation between increases in female labor force participation rates and the adoption of modern refrigerators. One interpretation is that in these counties the benefits of modern refrigeration were higher either because of the weather, because ice was not easily available and/or because of being further away from shopping areas. Despite the important increase in clerical occupations during these two decades, this study finds that neither clerical nor professional jobs (which were the best paid occupations) increased relatively to other occupations in counties which experienced higher adoption of modern refrigerators. The implications of these results are important to modelling technological changes to the household production function and suggest giving less weight to durables and the acquisition of modern appliances or formal inclusion of substitutes and more weight to improvements in the structure of the house.