Abstract

The private/public distinction and the gender distinction often go together. Domestical work has mainly been done by women. Practices like cooking, cleaning or doing the dishes are still to a great extent female tasks, even if women also have a full-time job. In this article the authors sketch the historical development of washing practices that has taken place during the last five centuries. This development is in a sense atypical. Whereas most productive functions that used to be fullfilled in the sphere of private household have been taken over by the public sphere of industrial economy, the washing practices show an opposite tendency. In premodern times washing used to be performed in public. During the 19th century washing was the object of commodification and professionalisation. After the introduction of the full automatic washing machine in the fifties, washing increasingly became a practice located in the private sphere. The authors first of all describe the evolution of the washing practices situating it on the private/public distinction. Secondly, they analyse the evolution of bourgeois' cleanliness standards in terms of the construction and maintenance of their (public) identity.

How to Cite:

Laermans, R. & Meulders, C., (1998) “Waspraktijk, properheid en sociale identiteit: een historisch-sociologische interpretatie in het licht van het onderscheid privé/publiek”, Tijdschrift voor Sociologie 19(3). doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/sociologos.86450