FINLEY STEWART

The Evolution of Kitchen Design and the Rise of Feminism: How the Nuclear Kitchen Defines and Challenges Gender Equality

Few experiences are as overlooked and meaningful as the daily interaction with the built environment of the home. Specifically, across the gender equality movements of the twentieth century, the kitchen was ground zero—the the kitchen rearranged with the feminist movement, and advanced from space of sexist division to that of cooperative responsibility and equality. Through the emergence of material feminists, the rise of co-housing and central kitchens, and the integration of professional and domestic space, the nuclear kitchen played a key role in defining and transforming the gender roles of the twentieth century.

The kitchen was a vessel for three key phases in domestic equality: assuaging women’s efforts in their traditional roles, enabling the division of labor across sexes, and finally promoting cooperation across gender roles. In analyzing the material feminists of the 1930’s, Swedish collective housing projects from the 1940s and 1950s, and co-housing trends from the 1970’s, I argue that the Frauen-Werk-Stadt, or the “woman-work-city” in English, incorporates traditionally overlooked woman-friendly design into conventional housing development plans, and synthesizes the various feminist movements of the twentieth century using a universal approach to gender equality known as “gender mainstreaming.” Distinct for an average of four stories per apartment building, grassy courtyards and accessible staircases, and diverse floor plans, the Frauen-Werk-Stadt incorporates woman- friendly design into conventional housing with a twist—from proposal, to construction, to its lasting legacy, the Frauen-Werk-Stadt attempts to elevate modest cooperation and experience into the industry of design itself.