Changes in Housework and Their Main Causes (Part 1)

Housework in Tokyo in 1920s

Abstract

In order to demonstrate what influence industrialization in the modern age has on housework, a research was conducted on housework in the 1920s.
A study was conducted on 250 housewives who completed the girls' high school in Tokyo and continued to live there in the 1920s after their marriage.
The results of the study are as follows :
Of the subjects 84.1% employed a maid, 87.9% used gas and 83.1% used city water. The level of living of the subjects were high in relation to those who lived in Tokyo in 1920s. But the load of housework was quite heavy. Especially, much sewing had to be done to prepare clothes for the family, floors and doors had to be wiped with a damp cloth when cleaning the house, and clothes had to be washed in a tub by hand. A maid has been hired for this kind of work, because on the one hand housework was looked down upon since the feudal times. On the other hand, because of the serious depression in Japan in the 1920s, many young women had to work for living. There were no other professions for women other than doing housework as a maid.