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Course: World History Project - 1750 to the Present > Unit 4
Lesson 5: Other MaterialsWATCH: A Victorian Laundry Room and Washing Machine
If you owned a hand-cranked washing machine in Victorian England, you were one lucky woman. If you were like most women, however, you did your washing by hand. In this short video, Avi Benn (AKA Mary-Ann Bird) plunges into the laborious—and sexist—world of Victorian clothes washing. Like what you see? This video is part of a comprehensive social studies curriculum from OER Project, a family of free, online social studies courses. OER Project aims to empower teachers by offering free and fully supported social studies courses for middle- and high-school students. Your account is the key to accessing our standards-aligned courses that are designed with built-in supports like leveled readings, audio recordings of texts, video transcripts, and more. Register today at oerproject.com!
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Website: https://www.oerproject.com/World-History
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OERProject
Twitter: https://twitter.com/oerproject. Created by World History Project.
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- Interesting... Females education wasn't thought to be that important because up until 1891, education wasn't free so - to save money - males went to school, while women were largely at home learning how to be wives and mothers.(1 vote)
Video transcript
NICK: This is Mrs. Mary Ann Bird, and she's going to teach me about domestic life during the Victorian Era. So Mrs. Bird, what is
this? MRS.BIRD: This is called a washer wringer, and this is the equivalent of the
Rolls Royce. This is what you would have if you were the rich. And it's a washing
machine with a wringer, so that you would put your clothes in here, and the drum
rotates, and then when the clothes have been washed, then they go through the
wringer. You want to have a go at turning the handle? But mind your fingers! So you
would put the clothes through there and it would squeeze the water out, but as I
said, this is what you would have if you were rich. You wouldn't do the washing
yourself. You would have the washer woman that came in two or three times a week,
and she would work in the wash house. If you were an ordinary person, then these
are the kind of things that you would use. This would be your washing machine. And you would soak your clothes from Saturday night, because Saturday night was when you had your bath, and that's when you changed your clothes, because you only
had a bath once a week. And so you would change your clothes and you would soak
them, and then Monday morning was wash day. So you would boil all your water on
the range, fill your washing tub with water and then grate your soap into it
and get all nice lather, and then you would use the dolly. And the dolly is
this three legged stool, and you would pound and twist your clothes. So pound
and twist for half an hour. So, do you want to have a feel of what that would
be like? So you're actually pounding away and twisting, you don't need to go to the
gym, not in Victorian times, because you do enough exercise. And you have to actually do that for half an hour, because remember, on a Monday morning everybody else is hanging their washing out. And they all have a little look, "Mrs.
Jenkins' washing is just as good as it was, but have you seen what her from number four has hung out? Well if she thinks that's white, it's
not, it's gray, I don't know how she has the gall to do that!" So it was pride
to actually hang out washing that was as white as you could possibly get it. This
is the more modern version, and this is called a posser, but sometimes people called it a paunch or a punch, depending on whereabouts in the country you come from. And what you do with this, is that you pound it up and down in the washtub,
rather than having the circular motion, because this has been designed so that
it will be more efficient. So, do you want to have a feel of that? Because what
happens with this, is that you're creating almost a vacuum as you are
pounding it up and down. Because the force of the pounding forces the water
through the fibers and releases the dirt. So, in theory this is more efficient than
that, but it's still hard work, and you still have to do it for half an hour. And
of course, if you were a girl, then quite often on a Monday morning, eh, you wouldn't go to school, because school, let's face it, education wasn't that important for
girls, because you would be kept at home to actually help your mum do the washing. NICK: So, just to be clear, it was only women and girls who did this type of work? MRS. BIRD: Oh yes, that was, that was women's work. Men didn't do it, good gracious, no. They would
do perhaps other things, like, sit in the chair and read the paper. Housework was
women's work, was girls' work, and girls worked with their mother to actually
learn how to be a wife and a mother. That was their role in life. And girls' education wasn't thought to be that important, because up until 1891 education in this country, school wasn't free, so why waste money on educating girls? So it was a very sexist society for many, many years, but yes. Washing was for women.