This paper analyzes the driving forces behind the diffusion of
washing machines during the 20th century. We scrutinize two alternative
hypotheses: the time substitution hypothesis, emanating from Gary Becker’s
household production theory, and the drudgery avoidance hypothesis, stemming
from a behavioral interpretation of household production processes. Time use
surveys cast doubt on the opportunity cost argument that household
appliances are purchased as a reaction to rising real wages. Specifically
washing machines had started to diffuse long before substantial time savings
in clothes washing became feasible. Analyzing the advertisements of washing
machines appearing in a U.S. women’s magazine between 1888 and 1989, we find
that the motive to save effort in clothes washing preceded time saving
concerns. We thus conclude that the increased price of the homemakers’ time
was not the ultimate factor driving the mechanization of the household.