The Grand Domestic Revolution
A History of Feminist Designs for American Homes, Neighborhoods, and Cities.
by Dolores Hayden.
Between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of the Great Depression, three generations of material feminists raised fundamental questions about what was called “woman’s sphere” and “woman’s work.” They challenged two characteristics of industrial capitalism: the
physical separation of household space from public space, and the economic separation of the domestic economy from the political economy. In order to overcome patterns of urban space and domestic space that isolated women and made their domestic work invisible, they developed new forms of neighborhood organizations, including housewives’ cooperatives, as well as new building types, including the kitchen-less house, the day care center, the public kitchen, and the community dining club.
