From Dyson to Rosey

The vacuum cleaner plays a large role in American life and many other cultures and countries. Over the years, the vacuum cleaner has evolved and has been tailored to fit the human being. Growing up, I came from a large family, three girls and three boys, and also cousins around the same age as me. Our ages ranged from three to twelve and I can remember us arguing over who would vacuum the floor because back then, we thought it was fun! It sure was a lot different from sweeping the floor.

Today, although I don’t continue to have those same fond feelings for vacuuming, my vacuum cleaner plays an intricate role in my life. I have a dyson vacuum cleaner, might I add a great brand that is almost conjoined to my hip at home. I use it to vacuum small messes, cobwebs, cracks, crevices, and periodically, I even vacuum my mattress to ensure that there are no dust mites. Because my vacuum cleaner has so many functions and it is so convenient, I even use it to vacuum out my car. As stated above, I came from a pretty big family and growing up in such a large household, the vacuum cleaner did not really have a gender assignment, it was just something that we all did. Although I see vacuuming as a gender neutral technology, society as a whole does not.



According to Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, between the 1940’s and 1960’s, the idea of the woman evolved from independent career oriented to “happy housewives” whose entire focus was family and home. During these times, post Cold War and World War II, the identity of many women was questioned. Women had been letting go of their own dreams to conform to the societal correct role of “housewife.”

If viewed from a culturally deterministic perspective, you could say that the vacuum cleaner was designed just for women. According to our textbook, technology is unequally prescribed and it makes assumptions of design and system which all tie into our identity. The vacuum cleaner is lightweight, small, easy to use and maneuver, and in some period in time, you could say was designed specifically for women. Not only that advertisements and social standards also tie into the gendering of vacuum cleaning. Essentially, the job of cleaning the floor has been delegated to the vacuum cleaner.



In a changing world, the roles of men and women are nowadays, interchangeable. Now you have stay at home dads and women who go out and work. You find husband and wives sharing the household chores because they both have careers. Furthermore, the “housewife” is not even that anymore. It is more common to find “life partners” or common law marriages. Sooner or later you will not have to worry about gendering technology because…technology will be in a category all by itself. In the concluding part of our textbooks, it tells us that robotic productions are aimed at now producing robots that will function seamlessly as part of our everyday life by building human like behaviors, responses, emotions, etc.!!! So when the role of the vacuum cleaner is spoken of, it is not that of gender, but, the new being, THE ROBOT.