The Other Kitchen Debate: Gender, Microwave Safety, and Household Labor in Late Cold War America

IF 0.7 2区 历史学 Q4 BUSINESS Enterprise & Society Pub Date : 2022-05-10 DOI:10.1017/eso.2022.20
W. Gamber
{"title":"The Other Kitchen Debate: Gender, Microwave Safety, and Household Labor in Late Cold War America","authors":"W. Gamber","doi":"10.1017/eso.2022.20","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"“The Other Kitchen Debate” places the history of the microwave oven in the context of Cold War anxieties and gender politics. Discrepancies between Soviet and U.S. safety standards, Soviet deployment of microwave espionage, and the prospect of nuclear war triggered fears about the possible dangers of kitchen appliances powered by low-level radiation. During the 1970s and early 1980s, politicians, government regulators, industry representatives, advertisers, home economists, media, and consumers engaged in lively debates over oven safety and the merits of microwave cookery. By the late eighties and early nineties, as East–West tensions waned and record numbers of American women entered the paid labor force, American media perceived fewer distinctions between the hazards posed by electronic ovens and those presented by their conventional counterparts. New definitions of safety redefined microwave ovens as purely domestic appliances, leaving questions about the potential risks of nonionizing radiation unresolved.","PeriodicalId":45977,"journal":{"name":"Enterprise & Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7000,"publicationDate":"2022-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Enterprise & Society","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1017/eso.2022.20","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"BUSINESS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0

Abstract

“The Other Kitchen Debate” places the history of the microwave oven in the context of Cold War anxieties and gender politics. Discrepancies between Soviet and U.S. safety standards, Soviet deployment of microwave espionage, and the prospect of nuclear war triggered fears about the possible dangers of kitchen appliances powered by low-level radiation. During the 1970s and early 1980s, politicians, government regulators, industry representatives, advertisers, home economists, media, and consumers engaged in lively debates over oven safety and the merits of microwave cookery. By the late eighties and early nineties, as East–West tensions waned and record numbers of American women entered the paid labor force, American media perceived fewer distinctions between the hazards posed by electronic ovens and those presented by their conventional counterparts. New definitions of safety redefined microwave ovens as purely domestic appliances, leaving questions about the potential risks of nonionizing radiation unresolved.
查看原文
分享 分享
微信好友 朋友圈 QQ好友 复制链接
本刊更多论文
另一场厨房辩论:冷战后期美国的性别、微波炉安全和家庭劳动
《另一个厨房的争论》将微波炉的历史置于冷战焦虑和性别政治的背景下。苏联和美国安全标准之间的差异、苏联部署的微波间谍活动以及核战争的前景引发了人们对低水平辐射供电的厨房电器可能存在的危险的担忧。在20世纪70年代和80年代初,政治家、政府监管机构、行业代表、广告商、家庭经济学家、媒体和消费者就烤箱安全和微波烹饪的优点展开了激烈的辩论。到了80年代末和90年代初,随着东西方紧张局势的缓和,美国女性进入有偿劳动力队伍的人数创下历史新高,美国媒体认为电子烤箱带来的危害与传统烤箱带来的危险之间的区别越来越小。新的安全定义将微波炉重新定义为纯粹的家用电器,留下了关于非离子辐射潜在风险的问题尚未解决。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
求助全文
约1分钟内获得全文 去求助
来源期刊
CiteScore
1.20
自引率
30.00%
发文量
37
期刊介绍: Enterprise & Society offers a forum for research on the historical relations between businesses and their larger political, cultural, institutional, social, and economic contexts. The journal aims to be truly international in scope. Studies focused on individual firms and industries and grounded in a broad historical framework are welcome, as are innovative applications of economic or management theories to business and its context.
期刊最新文献
Industrial Policy and its Funding at the Frontier of European Integration: Lessons from the Past and Present Challenges Paper Steaks: Live Cattle Futures Markets and the Financial Revolution of 1964 The Role of Forecasts in Planning for Energy Infrastructure: A Historical Look at Past Futures in Postwar Quebec “Killing Complaints with Courtesy”: The Role of Relationship Building in the Success of the Early U.S. Central Power Stations (1890–1938) Wartime segmentation: Class, gender, and nation in the marketing of consumers, Sweden 1939–1945
×
引用
GB/T 7714-2015
复制
MLA
复制
APA
复制
导出至
BibTeX EndNote RefMan NoteFirst NoteExpress
×
×
提示
您的信息不完整,为了账户安全,请先补充。
现在去补充
×
提示
您因"违规操作"
具体请查看互助需知
我知道了
×
提示
现在去查看 取消
×
提示
确定
0
微信
客服QQ
Book学术公众号 扫码关注我们
反馈
×
意见反馈
请填写您的意见或建议
请填写您的手机或邮箱
已复制链接
已复制链接
快去分享给好友吧!
我知道了
×
扫码分享
扫码分享
Book学术官方微信
Book学术文献互助
Book学术文献互助群
群 号:481959085
Book学术
文献互助 智能选刊 最新文献 互助须知 联系我们:info@booksci.cn
Book学术提供免费学术资源搜索服务,方便国内外学者检索中英文文献。致力于提供最便捷和优质的服务体验。
Copyright © 2023 Book学术 All rights reserved.
ghs 京公网安备 11010802042870号 京ICP备2023020795号-1