Editing Washing machine (section)

==Social impact==
[[File:Woman's Friend - Indiana State Museum - DSC00433.JPG|thumb|"Woman's Friend" machine (c. 1890)]]
The historically laborious process of washing clothes (a task which often consumed a whole day) was at times described as "[[women's work]]". The spread of the washing machine has been seen to be a force behind the improvement of [[Women's status|women's position in society]].

Before the advent of the washing machine, laundry was done first at watercourses, and later in public wash-houses known as [[lavoir]]s. [[Camille Paglia]] and others argue that the washing machine led to a type of [[social isolation]] of women,<ref>"As mulheres sufocam os homens". [[Revista Veja]], issue 2,363, 5 March 2014 (in Portuguese) {{cite web |url=http://veja.abril.com.br/acervodigital/home.aspx |title=Acervo Digital VEJA - Digital Pages |access-date=2014-04-03 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160402113729/http://veja.abril.com.br/acervodigital/home.aspx |archive-date=2016-04-02 }}</ref> as a previously communal activity became a solitary one.

In 2009 the Italian newspaper ''[[L'Osservatore Romano]]'' reprinted a ''Playboy'' magazine article on [[International Women's Day]] arguing that the washing machine had done more for the liberation of women than the [[combined oral contraceptive pill|contraceptive pill]] and [[abortion rights]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Galeotti|first=Giulia|title=Metti il detersivo, chiudi il coperchio e rilassati|url=https://www.vatican.va/news_services/or/or_quo/cultura/056q05a1.html|work=L'Osservatore Romano|access-date=25 July 2011|language=IT|date=8 March 2009}}</ref> A study from [[Université de Montréal]], Canada presented a similar point of view, and added [[refrigerator]]s.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090312150735.htm |title=Fridges And Washing Machines Liberated Women, Study Suggests |publisher=Sciencedaily.com |date=2009-03-12 |access-date=2012-06-01}}</ref> The following year, Swedish statistician [[Hans Rosling]] suggested that the positive effect the washing machine had on the liberation of women makes it "the greatest invention of the industrial revolution".<ref>{{cite web |title=Hans Rosling and the magic washing machine |url=http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_and_the_magic_washing_machine.html |publisher=TED Conferences |date=December 2010 |access-date=17 November 2011}}</ref> It has been argued that washing machines are an example of labor-saving technology which does not decrease employment, because households can internalize the gains of the innovation.<ref>E McGaughey, "Will Robots Automate Your Job Away? Full Employment, Basic Income, and Economic Democracy" (2018) [https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3044448 SSRN, part 3(4)]</ref>

Historian Frances Finnegan credits the rise of domestic laundry technology in helping to undercut the economic viability of the [[Magdalene asylum]]s in Ireland (later revealed to be inhumanly abusive prisons for women), by supplanting their laundry businesses and prompting the eventual closure of the institutions as a whole.<ref>{{cite book|last=Finnegan|first=Frances|title=Do Penance or Perish: Magdalen Asylums in Ireland|year=2004|publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> Irish feminist [[Mary Frances McDonald]] has described washing machines as the single most life-changing invention for women.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Meehan|first=Ciara|date=28 November 2017|title='Cope the Modern Way': Electricity and the Irish Housewife, 1930s–1960s|url=https://researchprofiles.herts.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/cope-the-modern-way-electricity-and-the-irish-housewife-1930s1960s(cc0b4fdf-2710-45eb-a822-a53308f977d6).html|journal=Irish Archives|volume=25|page=10|quote=Mamo McDonald – born in 1929 and a former  president  of  the  Irish Countrywomen’s  Association – replied  without hesitation that the washing machine had had the greatest impact.|via=School of Humanities, [[University of Hertfordshire]]}}</ref>

In India, ''[[dhobi]]s'', a caste group specialized in washing clothes, are slowly adapting to modern technology, but even with access to washing machines, many still handwash garments as well.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thenational.ae/business/industry-insights/economics/dhobi-tradition-far-from-washed-up|title=Dhobi tradition far from washed up|author=Rebecca Bundhun|work=thenational.ae|date=15 December 2012 |access-date=19 January 2015}}</ref> Since most modern homes are equipped with a washing machine, many Indians have dispensed with the services of the ''dhobiwallahs''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://photoblog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/20/16053402-indian-laundry-men-spin-out-decades-old-tradition?lite|title=Indian laundry men spin out decades-old tradition|author=Photos|date=19 January 2015|work=NBC News|access-date=19 January 2015}}</ref>