Post on 19-Dec-2015
Technologies of Food Technologies of Food and Processing: and Processing: Inventions in Inventions in the the Domestic ArenaDomestic Arena
Technologies of Food Technologies of Food and Processing: and Processing: Inventions in Inventions in the the Domestic ArenaDomestic Arena
By: Jasmine KlintongEWS 425H
Gender, Identity, & Technology
By: Jasmine KlintongEWS 425H
Gender, Identity, & Technology
Food-Processing• “Second only to woman’s achievement
in domesticating all the world’s major food plants is her achievement in making plants edible” (Stanley, pp. 18).
• Detoxification/debittering:– Acorns– Olives – Taro– Sago– Cassava/manioc
- tipiti
Food Preparation: CookingFood Preparation: Cooking• Cross-Cultural sample: “Only activity…not
exclusively male in any culture” (Stanley, pp. 23).
• Omitted, or not emphasized:– Cooking is technology – Cooking was once the cuttingedge of technology– Cooking is significant technology– Cooking gave rise or contributed to many other technologies
Agriculture• Who’s in charge? Who makes the tools?
A comparison of Sexual Labor Division in Cultivation Between Sample
Horticultural & Agricultural SocietiesCultivation Type Technology
Horticulture Agriculture
# % # %Female 52 50 15 16Male 17 17 75
81Both sexes equally 35 33 3 3
Totals 104 100 93 100
• Explained by the Takeover Theory…
Takeover Theory c. 4000-2000 BCE• Men as a “superclass”• Distribution of production = economic power $$• Men= physically stronger; more free time; farming specializations• “[It’s a] pattern of women’s inventing a technology and developing it to a satisfactory level…only to lose out in that activity as it becomes commercialized and professionalized.”• Culture• Male historians
18th Century Inventions• Sybilla Righton Masters: maize
stamping mill• Betsy Baker, Mary Kies, Sophia
Woodhouse Welles: bonnets• Mary Wortley Montagu: veterinary
medicine• Mrs. Paulet, Marie Harel: cheese• Catherine Littlefield Greene: short-
staple cotton gin?
19th and 20th Centuries• Plant culture
– Seed-treatment• Planting & cultivating
techniques• Fertilizer• Irrigation, drainage,
and related inventions– Harriet W. H. Strong:
dams & reservoirs• New plants
– Valentina Mamontova: winter & spring wheat & barley
• Plant diseases– Helen K. Tobol
• Herbicides
Elizabeth Coleman White- blueberry
Animal Husbandry• New breeds, varieties
– Salina, Maria, and Elena• “raised cattle in a personal way”
• Care of livestock– methods, apparatus, research
– World War– Melinda L. Boice: 1st successful calf by in-
vitro fertilization
• Dairy and poultry inventions– Milk & butter– Chicks & eggs: OBSERVATION – Dr. Pennington
• Married Women’s Property Acts
Food-Processing
• Machines, devices– “Women patented at least 46 food-processing
machines and devices in just over fifty years, between 1843 and early 1895.”
– Nancy M. Johnson: standard crank actuated freezer (1843)
– Denise C. Ralu: beermaking– Elizabeth Dakin: cleaning and roasting coffee
• Tools– Dione Lucas: Gourmet knives
• Methods, techniques, processes– Marie S. Gray: Treatment of cottonseed meals– Maura M. Bean: cake flour w/o chlorine
Food processing cont…• Cooking
– Fireless cooking• Cookware
– Pots & pans• Teflon and Pyrex
– Stoves•Margaret Owen: Cooking range or stove•Eldress Emeline Hart: revolving oven•Dr. Maria Telkes: solar energy
Food processing cont…• Food Storage and preservation
– Amanda Theodosia Jones: canning, preserving, jelly-making (1906)
• Drying– Lydia J. Cadwell, Minnie Lloyd: fertilizer drier (1886)
• Refrigeration/freezing– Nancy A. Lamon, Julian L. Fitzgerald,
Mary H. Harris: refrigerator– Dr. Pennington again (frozen foods)
Food processing cont…• New foods: infant formulas, travel foods, survival foods, etc.
– Marie Mofort: Catholic nun: cake (~1420)– Mary Hopping: 19th century refried bean loaf – Anonymous: ice cream cone (1904)– Ruth Wakefield, Debra J. Fields: cookies
• Diet Foods– Jean Slutsky Nidetch: Weight Watchers (1960s)– Women usually responsible for nutrition of families…
• Nutrition– Dr. Kamala Sohonie: important research in food
and plant chemistry
Food processing cont…• Agricultural machines
– Frances Willoughby: grain thrashing invention (1722)
– Lady Ann Vavasour: Machinery for tilling land
– Ann B. Harned Manning: mower & reaper• Hand tools
– Elizabeth H. Buckley: shovel (1828)– Sister Tabitha Babbit: iron nails– Eliza B. Wilcox: pitchfork & rake (1886)
• Genetic engineering– Annie C. Y. Chang: gene-splicing techniques– Mary-Dell Chilton: method for introducing
genes into plant cells and reliably producing normal fertile plants
– Prevents enormous loss
Women invent!Miranda Smith Joanna B. Tribble
Rebecca WalterElizabeth A. Briggs Nellie Brown Mary
BryanAnna L. Miller Dr. Joan Moore Dr. Mary GlynneMarie Schaefer Henrietta King Sally ForbesClaudia Meilland Helen Newton Turner Nancy
P. WilkersonKathleen K. Meserve Geneva Armstrong
Elizabeth A. CraigAlice Vonk Cora B. Shellengerger Ingabrit T.
IngebritsonDr. Virginia Walbot Mary A. Lipscomb
Lettie SmithOlga Kolomiets Mary Taylor Hannah Warner