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