Gender Roles
Efficiency with Simplicity
Since modernism applied in a home focused on efficiency with simplicity, some view the efforts to reduce house labor as an acknowledgment of women’s pressure to maintain a tidy home. Nonetheless, designers are still reluctant to completely release women from the household role (Wilson, 2021, p. 49). While women are portrayed as being responsible for house maintenance like cooking, cleaning, laundry, child care, and hospitality, the design of related furniture and appliances is deliberately meant to offer her assistance in completing these tasks. For instance, the greater space and fewer free-standing pieces because of built-in function were designed and marketed to women as having less furniture to move and clean beneath (Wilson, 2021, p. 49).
George Nelson Storage Wall Life Magazine Spread
Magazine spread featuring a text introduction to the Nelson storage wall with three accompanying images of a woman standing in front of the wall of cabinetry and modeling the system’s storage components.
Role of a Homemaker
A selling feature to women was that minimalist design would minimize the woman’s labor, allowing her more time to complete her other household tasks and support her in her role as a successful homeworker. Similarly, being the “homemaker” in a postwar time came with the substantial responsibility of curating a hospitable home and creating an environment in which family togetherness is achieved (Wilson, 2021, p. 25). For women, modernist design stood as a way to bring these values to the home. In many of the home and furniture catalogs and showrooms, there are apparent similarities in regard to the design and placement of objects within the frame of the picture. These are intentional layout choices that influence the impressions viewers take away from it. For example, rooms of mid-century homes are often portrayed as spacious, allowing the family ample room to host guests, and plenty of room for the family to engage in any activity they wish without having to leave the room and do so separately.
Kohler Residence Interior
Interior view of the Kohler house from the magazine, titled Tomorrow's Home (1945).