Abstract
The history of the washing machine as an object, in its varied connotations of meaning, accompanies the evolution of a female social model in an Italy that passes all the phases of a real economic miracle. After the Second World War, it began to be introduced in response to a lack: the inability of foreign brands to meet the needs and tastes of typically Italian social classes. The organization of the mechanical workshops shifted from a family-run model to structurally complex models. This reorganization contributes to transforming Italy into an industrial reference capable of placing its products all over the world, distinguishing itself for design and innovation. But the story of the Italian washing machine is linked to the history of two brands: Candy and Zanussi. This contribution aims to tell the story of the washing machine object in the Italian post-war society in its many connotations: starting from the need to perpetuate an all-female ritual and arriving at the will to create and define an object of desire that would represent the Italian female taste.
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Notes
- 1.
The role of women in these years, conveyed by the national press, is analyzed in public in a critical way such as: M. Buonanno, Naturale come sei. Indagini sulla stampa femminile in Italia, Firenze, Guaraldi, 1975; S. Cassamagnaghi, Immagini dall’America. Massmedia e modelli femminili nell’Italia del secondo dopoguerra 1945–60, Milano, Angeli, 2007.
- 2.
Just to mention some firm points of this process, it is enough to remember Florence Kelley with the National Consumers’ League movement in the early twenties of the twentieth century, which was open to a sort of “consumer ethic”. See in this regard: L.R. Storrs, Civilizing Capitalism: The National Consumers League, Women’s Activism, and Labor Standards in the New Deal Era, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 2000.
- 3.
E. Meyer, Der neue Haushalt, ein Wegweiser zu Wirtschaftlicher Hausshaltfürung (the new housekeeping manual that teaches the scientific conduct of the house), Franchk, Stuttgart, 1926.
- 4.
The influence of the American market on Italian culture is described in: V. De Grazia, L’impero irresistibile. La societá dei consumi americana alla conquista del mondo, Torino, Einaudi, 2006; E. Scarpellini, Compreare all’americana. Le origini della rivoluzione commerciale in Italia, 1945–1971, Bologna, il Mulino, 2001.
- 5.
On the Ina Casa Plan see: Di Biagi, P., La grande ricostruzione. Il piano Ina-Casa 1949–1963, Editrice Leonardo, 2001.
- 6.
On the development of household appliances in Italy and the evolution of Italian entrepreneurship see: R. Giannetti, Tecnologia e sviluppo economico italiano 1870–1990, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1998; C. Castagnoli, E. Scarpellini, Storia degli imprenditori italiani, Torino, Einaudi, 2003.
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Maddaluno, R., Pereira Neto, M.J. (2020). The Washing Machine and the Freed Time: The Modernization of a Social Rite and the Aesthetic Conquest of a Model Made in Italy. In: Rebelo, F., Soares, M. (eds) Advances in Ergonomics in Design. AHFE 2020. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1203. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51038-1_2
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