Abstract

RIOS DURAN, MARÍA ASTRID. Modernizing the Household. Modern Products for the Home and Technification of Domestic Work in Bogotá, 1940-1959. Anu. colomb. hist. soc. cult. [online]. 2020, vol.47, n.1, pp.169-199.  Epub Mar 08, 2020. ISSN 0120-2456.  https://doi.org/10.15446/achsc.v47n1.83149.

The article addresses the process of modernization of households in Bogotá in the mid-twentieth century, which took place with the arrival of modern products for the home, such as electrical appliances, aimed at efficiency and comfort when carrying out household tasks, thus leading to the technification of female domestic work. We shall focus on the incipient stage of that modernization process, due to the limitations inherent to the promises of those products and to the relative and primary use of those goods. One must bear in mind that those products arrived to a socially differentiated city and society, which debated whether traditional energy sources, such as coal, and human labor, represented by housewives and maids, should continue to be used to carry out household tasks. Diverse primary and secondary sources were used for this study, especially the discourse used to advertise modern home products, articles in serial publications, and public company files.

Keywords : 20th century; Bogotá; domestic work; electrical appliances; household; material culture; modernization; product; technification.

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